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HISTORY
OF
SOUTH CAROLINA
EDITED BY
YATES SNOWDEN, LL. D.
In colUboratioa with
H. G. CUTLER,
General Hiitomn
and an Editorial Advisory Board including
Special Contributors
Issued in Five Volumes
VOLUME V
ILLUSTRATED
PUBLISHERS
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1 9 JO
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PUBUC LIBKAKT
332997A
tITdbh koohdatioh*
cnrysiGHT, 1920
THE LEWIS PUBUSHING COMPANY
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History of South Carolina
Chief Justice Gary and the South Carouna
Judiciary. Carlyle tells us that history is the es-
sence of innumerable biographies. With equal truth
it may be said that the life-story of one man, well
and truly and fully told, is a chapter in the history of
his coimtry. Especially so is this the case when the
man has spent his life in a high public office, in the
service of his country and his state. I purpose to
write a brief chapter in the history of our state by
giving a sketch of the life of Eugene Blackburn
Gary, chief justice of South Carolina. A complete
biography it cannot be, for he is still living and in
active service; and long may he so continue. This
fact also forbids the use of panegyrics and terms of
exaggerated praise, nor does it permit the search
and exposure of failings, if any there be. It also
bids me refrain from invading the privacy and sanc-
tity of his home, no matter how beautiful and attrac-
tive the description might be. I can only hope to
draw, as it were, an outline sketch, observing the
limits that good taste lays down.
There is no higher office, nor one of greater honor
and responsibility, than that of judge, whether of the
Supreme or the Circuit Court. And there is no state
in the Union where judges are held in so high honor-
as in South Carolina. Yet here, as elsewhere, it is
sad to reflect that after death the memory of them
is shortened. Read the history of our own or of any
state and you will see that while governors, states-
men, generals, are remembered with honor, hardly a
reference is made to the judges. It is very true that
when they rest from their labors their works do
follow them. But those works, in the shape of
opinions, decisions and decrees, are pigeon-holed as
court records, or bound in calf as law reports, vol-
umes unknown to the historians, and consulted only
by succeeding judges and lawyers in search of au-
thorities and precedents. Thus it is that chief jus-
tices, chancellors and judges, distinguished in their
lifetime for their learning, and honored for their
splendid service, are not long remembered after
death. They share the common fate to be forgotten
ere long, like a dead man out of mind, unless they
have done something worthy of note outside of the
work of the court. Chancellor Kent is remembered
because of his "Commentaries," not because of his
chancellorship. Who would ever hear of Judge
Longstreet if he had not written the "Georgia
Scenes"? A similar fate awaits lawyers; McCrady
will be remembered for his **History of South Caro-
lina," when Petigru shall have been forgotten.
It is therefore, to me, a grateful task to contribute
to this book on South Carolina a sketch of Chief
Justice Gary which may be read by future genera-
tions and may show them what manner of man he
was.
It has been said that no one is qualified to write
the biography of another unless he has known him
from his boyhood and all throu^ his life. I may
claim to that extent to be qualified; for the boy,
Eugene Gary, had me for his schoolmaster for three
years; he and I were for nearly twenty years prac-
ticing at the same bar, and the same day saw him
made associate justice and me a Circuit judge. He
was born in Cokesbury, in the old County of Abbe-
ville, on August 22, 1854. Looking back through ^e
three score and six years of his life so far — this is
written in 1920 — we were bound to say that he has
lived through a most eventful period in the history
of his state, his country, and the world. He was
old enough to remember the terrible times of the
Civil war. He saw the sad end of it when President
Davis spent the night in his grandfather's house in
Cokesbury just the day before he held in Abbeville
the last meeting of the Cabinet of the Confederacy.
Then followed, until 1876, the horrible reconstruc-
tion period, worse in many respects than the war
time, when South Carolina was known throughout
the world as the "Prostrate State," ground to the
dust under the heels of her emancipated negroes,
who were led and controlled by Yankee carpet-bag-
gers and backed by garrisons of soldiers, white and
black. The bloodless revolution led by Hampton in
'76 put an end to the rule of Yankee and negro. In
that revolution no one played a better part than did
Gen. Mart Gary, uncle of Eugene.
The year 1886 saw the beginning of the farmers*
movement, led by Benjamin R. Tillman, which re-
sulted in 1890 in the election of Tillman as governor,
and of Eugene Gary as lieutenant governor. Mean-
while Eugene B. Gary had served one term in the
Legislature and had taken an active part in the
political strife which waged for several years. For
six years he was chairman of the democratic party
in Abbeville County. After serving four years as
lieutenant governor and president of the Senate, he
was electd to the Supreme Court as associate justice
in 1893. In 1912 he was elected chief justice, and
still occupies that high office.
His has been a successful life. We often hear and
read of the secret of success. This is a misleading
and inappropriate phrase. There is nothing hidden
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
nor mysterious about it. The cause is plain to any-
one who will look for it. Success is a plant of slow
growth which requires constant and most careful
nursing. The price of success is the proper phrase.
A man makes up his mind to reach a certain goal;
it may be far off, the road may be a rough and
thorny one, and progress may be by painful steps
and slow; but he trains himself by education, he
devotes all his powers to the attainment of his aim,
and in the end succeeds. That was the case with
Eugene Gary; he paid the price, he succeeded; and
like all truly successful men he deserved success. Let
us now look back and trace his course from boy-
hood and see what was the price he paid.
It was in February, 1869, that I first saw young
Eugene Gary. I had opened a classical school in
his native town, Cokesbury. He and his two younger
brothers came on the opening day. He was in his
fifteenth year. I remember well how he looked — a
tall lad, slight in build, his pale complexion made to
look more pale by the intense blackness of his hair.
For three years he was one of my schoolboys. Of
the thirty or forty lads who were his schoolfellows,
it is pleasant to remember that they all did good
work, that they all behaved uncommonly well, that
several of them could not be surpassed for dili-
gence and progress in their studies, and none sur-
passed Eugene Gary. Regular in attendance, he
showed each morning that the lessons appointed for
study at home had been thoroughly learned. If he
had a fault, it was that he was more. of a student
than a schoolboy; he seemed to have no great lik-
ing for the active sports and games of his school
fellows.
It is to me a most gratifying reflection that so
many of those schoolboys turned out so well in after
life. Eugene Gary is not the only one who has
attained to high and honorable position. From that
group of lads there came a United States senator,
a governor of the state, a lieutenant governor, a chief
justice, two Circuit judges, a member of Congress,
a speaker of the House, a president of the Senate,
several members of the Senate and the. House, be-
sides lawyers, physicians and business men success-
ful in their various callings. This is a record to be
proud of, not unworthy to be placed beside the rec-
ord of Doctor Waddell's school at Willington, so
famous in the history of Abbeville County.
Eugene Gary went straight from the school to-
the University of South Carolina, from which in due
time he was graduated. With his course there I am
not familiar, but I am sure he was a most diligent
student, that he "lived laborious days" and burned
the midnight oil.
After his graduation he read law in the office of
his uncle, Gen. Mart Gary, at Edgefield, and was
admitted to the bar in his twenty-second year. He
immediately opened an office and **hung out his
shingle" as an attorney at law at Abbeville Court
House, and began the practice of his chosen pro-
fession. His determination to join the Abbeville
bar showed that the young lawyer had a brave heart
That bar at that time had no superiors in the state,
and only one, or perhaps two, that could match it.
Armstead Burt, Thomas C. Perrin, General Mc-
Gowan (afterward judge of the Supreme Court);
Edward Noble, William H. Parker, W. A. Lee,
James S. Cothran (afterward Circuit judge) — these
are the names of the men who then composed the
Abbeville bar — all of them lawyers of manv years'
experience and of large practice. It was a bar that
not only controlled the business of Abbeville County,
but had a large share in the litigation of all the
upper and surrounding counties.
At that time Abbeville County was one of the
largest, most populous, and most influential counties
in the state. It was a model county in size and shape,
and its people were proud of its history. The forma-
tion of new counties reduced old Abbeville in influ-
ence as well as in size.
But Abbeville was old Abbeville still during the
eighteen years in which Eugene Gary practiced law
at its bar. The same qualities that had distinguished
him as a schoolboy, made him successful as a lawyer ;
he was diligent in business, faithful to the interests
of his clients, always well-prepared and ready for
trial of his cases in court. It is not strange, there-
fore, that he built up an excellent practice.
At this point I may state that Eugene Gary mar-
ried young, in 1877. Good taste forbid that I should
say more than this — ^that he was most fortunate in
his marriage. In the expressive language of Holy
Writ, he "obtained favor of the Lord."
We have already seen that in 1893 he was honored
with a seat on the Supreme Bench as associate
Justice; and that in 1912 he was chosen to be chief
justice — 2L well merited promotion and the goal he
had aimed at when he began to read law with his
uncle. He still holds that high office, the highest
and most responsible office in the commonwealth,
second only to the chief justiceship of the United
States, held in honor not onlv in South Carolina,
but in all her sister states. The Supreme Court of
South Carolina has long attracted the attention and
gained the respect andf confidence of judges and
&wyers and text writers in America and in the old
country. Its decisions on the principles of the com-
mon law, and of commercial law, and upon the
ethics of equity jurisprudence, are cited with ap-
proval, and many of them as leading cases, in all
the courts of the United States and in the high
court of Westminster Hall. I well remember how
high was the estimation in which our Supreme
Court Reports were held by Judge Dillon and Judge
Cooley, those learned judges and standard text
writers. In conversation with me they both showed
they were familiar with our law reports and re-
ferred to some of our leading cases in terms of
highest praise, naming even the chancellors or the
justices who had written the opinions they spoke
of.
It is excellent to reflect that our Supreme Court
has a traditional reputation for its great learning,
judicial ability and the wisdom and soundness of
its opinion — a reputation of which the bench and bar
and the state at large have good reason to be
proud. It would not be proper, nor is it necessary,
for me to pass upon the merits of the incumbent
chief justice and associate justices. It is enough
to say that, judging from the frequency with which
their opinions are cited as authority in all the
American courts and included with commendation
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
in the volumes of leading cases, they are doing their
important work in a manner worthy of the best
traditions of our Supreme Court
And yet it would not be an offense against the
canons of good taste to say that Chief Justice Gary
is a learned judge. His whole life, since boyhood,
has been spent in laying up stores of legal knowl-
edge, of which his numerous opinions afford ample
proof. They also show that he is endowed with the
judicial cast of mind, and possesses the analytical
faculty to discern the real points at issue. They
manifest his intimate acquaintance with precedents
and aptness in applying them. Whether passing
upon statute law or the common law, lex scripta or
the lex non scripta, or upon the fundamental prin-
ciples of law and equity, his decisions are marked
by clearness, conciseness and freedom from tech-
nicality ; and, greatly to the satisfaction of the mem-
bers of the bar, those decisions, excepting in rare in-
stances, are brief.
This quality of brevity is much to be commended ;
all the more so because it is more rarely found in the
decisions of courts than formerly. There has been
a perceptible lengthening during the last forty or
fif^ years. Compare a volume of the United States
Supreme Court Reports of the year 1800 with a
volume of the year 1900, and you will find a great
difference in the length of the decisions. In the
former they are, with very few exceptions, brief
and to the point; in the latter they are nearly all
too long and elaborate. This regrettable change may
be due to the modem habit of dictating to a stenog-
rapher. There is no doubt that when justices wrote
their opinions with their own hand, the patience and
pen lal>or encouraged concentration of thought, con-
ciseness and condensation. As little doubt is there
that the habit of dictating to a stepographer tends
to diffuseness and elaboration and long drawn out
argumentation.
As to Chief Justice Gary — I see in the man of
15520 the boy that I knew in 1869— -the boy who was
without doubt the father of that man. The same
qualities are manifest in the chief justice which
I remarked in the schoolboy; he is, just as the boy
was, a hard worker, painstaking, diligent in busi-
ness, impatient of delay, eager to finish his task and
have "a clean slate." This accounts for the celerity
with which he dispatches the business of the court
during term time, and the promptness with which
he hands down the opinions in the cases assigned
to him. No suitor can complain of "the law's de-
lay" when the opinion in his case is to be written by
Chief Justice Gary.
Onerous though his labors are as chief justice,
he still finds time for respite from those labors in
other studies than the strictly legal. Studious by nature
and habit, he takes his recreation in much reading
of g^eral litcrtiture, history seeming to be his
favorite branch, if we are to judge by several of
his published addresses on historical subjects. In
more than one of these addresses he has presented
most admirably the case of the Southern Confed-
eracy — a subject which even at this late day receives
scant justice at the hands of Northern writers. He
has delivered a number of excellent addresses to law
students, and even those addresses have a historical
tendency, as also have those he has made at the dedi-
cation of new court houses. A notable address on
legal ethics, which he delivered before the South
Caroline Bar Association, was deservedly compli-
mented by Judge Alton B. Parker, of New York,
who was in the audience. He rose and congratulated
South Carolina oa having at the head of her
judiciary one who could produce so admirable a
paper.
The chief justice has also been a frequent con-
tributor of articles to law journals. He is said to
have written at least 1,800 opinions, before writing
which he had to listen with close attention to nearly
4,000 arguments of opposing counsel. Add to this
the labor in preparing numerous public addresses and
contributions to various journals — is it surprising
that his predecessor, the late Chief Justice Mclver,
himself a hard worker, said that Chief Justice Gary
was the hardest working man he ever knew? In
19 1 5 the degree was conferred upon him by the
University of South Carolina.
Having given this outline sketch of Eugene Black-
bum Gary, let me now look up his pedigree. It is
a pedigree to be proud of. He comes of good stock
on both the paternal and maternal side of his family.
Both the Garys and the Blackbums have a clear
claim of descent from early pre-Revolutionary
settlers. The Garys are first heard of in Virginia.
The first identified Gary ancestor of our chief jus-
tice is Charles Gary, who had come with others of
the same family name from Virginia and settled
in Carolina in what is now called Newberry County.
There we find him in 1767.
The Blackburns, his mother's family, are descend-
ants of William Blackburn, who was killed in the
battle of King's Mountain, fighting against the
British.
But it is through the Porters, the family of his
grandmother, Mrs. Thomas Gary, that the chief jus-
tice can go farthest back in tracing his descent
That venerable lady — I knew her welf— was the lin-
eal descendant of John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian
minister, born in Scotland in 1670, who, after hay-
ing lived in Ulster, the North of Ireland, came to
Carolina in 1734 and made his home in the Williams-
burg settlement. He was a descendant of John
Knox, the great Scottish reformer. He was a
brother-in-law of another Witherspoon. the illustrious
divine, the president of Princeton College, one of
the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He
did more than merely sign. There was in the Con-
gress a manifest and natural hesitation to "put their
necks in a halter" by signing it, when John Wither-
spoon came to the front and carried the day. **For
myself," said he, "though these gray hairs must
soon descend into the sepulchre, I would infinitely
rather they should descend thither by the hand of
the public executioner than desert at this crisis the
sacred cause of my country." On the appeal of
that Scotman the declaration was signed.
It thus appears that Chief Justice Gary has reason
to be proud of his ancestry. They were all of that
excellent stock, usually called Anglo-Saxon, which
furnished the Southern colonies with a notable pop-
ulation, from whom have descended the bulk of our
present day Southerners, who, being the descend-
ants of those that made America, are the living em-
bodiments of pure and true Americanism. Our
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Northern and Western friends have long boasted
the marvelous power of the "melting-pot" to as-
similate and transform into good Americans all the
people of the earth. That was before the Great
war. The melting-pot is not so highly thought of
now. They would be glad to empty it and get rid
of some millions of "undesirables," who decline to
be Americanized. Fortunately for the South' there
has been no such flood of foreign immigration hither
as to require the use of that pot. In South Carolina,
for example, among the early settlers were three
colonies of Huguenots and one of Germans from
the Rhenish Palatinate — all of them most desirable
as fellow citizens. They have long ago been entirely
absorbed and assimilated in our Anglo-Saxon pop-
ulation. Long may the South continue to be the
home of true Americanism, the guardian and pre-
server of liberty and independence; of personal
liberty and state independence and self-government.
Proud of his ancestry, Chief Justice Gary has no
reason to be ashamed of his immediate kith and kin,
but quite to the contrary. His father, Dr. Frank
Gary, was a physician eminent in his profession.
So was his grandfather, Dr. Thomas R. Gary. His
uncle, Thomas P. Gary, was brigade surgeon in the
Confederate army, as, indeed, his father, Dr. Frank
Gary, had also been. The South Carolina Garys
seem to have had a family predilection and aptitude
for the medical profession, manifested first by two
sons of the ancestor, Charles Gary, already men-
tioned, and showing in each succeeding generation.
In the last and present generation, however, they
seem to have taken to law rather than to medicine.
Martin Wither spoon Gary — mark his historical name
— the uncle already referred to, was a leading lawyer
in Edgefield, although he is better known as Maj.
Gen. "Mart" Gary, one of the most famous and gal-
lant of the cavalry commanders in the Confederate
army. Another uncle, William T. Gary, who had
served as major in that army, was afterward a law-
yer and a Circuit judge in Augusta, Georgia. An-
other uncle, S. M. G. Gary, was a lawyer in Ocala,
Florida. Then come the two brothers and three
first cousins of the chief justice, all lawyers in South
Carolina.
The two brothers, Ernest Gary (deceased), and
Frank B. Gary, were both Circuit judges at the same
time Eugene B. Gary was chief justice. It was the
extraordinary, the unparalleled fortune of their
mother to see her three sons all honored with seats
on the judicial bench. No wonder she was proud
of her boys. She lived to a great age, dying in Abbe-
ville in 1918. Before his election to the bench
Judge Frank Gary had served an "unexpired term"
as United States Senator.
Of the three cousins, the oldest, John Gary Evans,
was governor of the state; was a major in the army
during the war with Spain, and was placed in charge
of the City of Havana after peace was declared.
His father, N. G. Evans, who was an officer in the
United States Army before the Civil war, became
the gallant Gen. "Shanks" Evans of the Confederate
Army. South Carolina awarded him a sword and
a medal in token of his bravery and success in battle.
The foregoing paragraphs concerning the Gary
family abundantly testify that the chief justice
comes of a good breed. This is a cause of pleasant
reflection not only for himself, but for the people
of South Carolina who have honored him so highly,
and whom he has served and still serves so well
and faithfully. The man who has reason to be
proud of his ancestry is also the man who desires
to leave an honored name to posterity.
I wish I could finish this without adding a note
of sadness. But a sketch of . Chief Justice Gary
could not be complete without a reference to the
great loss and bereavement he suffered during the
Great war, in the death of his only son, who bore
his own name, Eugene Blackburn Gary.
True to the traditions of his family, when war
was declared, young Gary, twenty-seven years of
age, at once answered his country's call. Some
slight trouble with his eyes twice caused him to be
unsuccessful in his eager efforts to join an officers'
training corps; but his persistence brought success
on his third effort. After the proper training he
sailed for France as a lieutenant in a motor-truck
company. On the ocean passage he contracted pneu-
monia and died in the American Hospital at Brest
on the very day after landing in France. Djring thus,
young Eugene Gary gave his life to his country as
fully and patriotically as if he had fallen on the
field of battle.
We thus see that Chief Justice Gary has repaid
his state and his country for the honors they have
abundantly bestowed on him — ^he has given his son,
his only son. — By his old teacher, Former Judge
W. C. Benet.
Col. Henry Harrison Halx was a dignified, suc-
cessful and influential business man and citizen of
Aiken for over thirty years, and his record is one
that commends him to a place among South Caro-
lina's most honored citizens.
He was bom in Darien, Georgia, November 22,
1847, a son of Henry Tucker Hall, who was bom
an English subject on the Isle of Bermuda. The
mother of Colonel Hall was Susan Harrison, a na-
tive of Georgia and of the distinguished Harrison
family of Virginia. She was a granddaughter of
President William Henry Harrison and a first cousin
of President Benjamin Harrison. The late Colonel
Hall was therefore a great-grandson of one of
America's most distinguished soldiers and presidents.
Colonel Hall has three sisters and two brothers, all
now deceased: Mrs. D. O. C. Heery; Phyllis and
Marian Hall, of Atlanta. Georgia; T. T Hall, of
Highland, North Carolina, and Horace S. Hall, of
Charleston.
At the begrinning of the Civil war Henry Harrison
Hall was fourteen years of age. His youthful am-
bition to become a soldier was denied until 1863,
when he enlisted as a private, and was in servkre
until the end of the struggle. As a member of
Matthews Heavy Artillery he sp^t most of his
time at Battery Wagener and about Charleston, and
was with the forces of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston
when they surrendered in North Carolina in 1865.
At that time he was an acting quartermaster ser-
geant. He was an ardent defender of his beloved
southland, as a soldier was fearless and brave, and
while his generous nature prompted him to acknowl-
edge the bravery of his enemies, he regarded the
Confederate soldier as his ideal of manly courage
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FOUR GENERATIONS
Samuel T. Jenerette, Mrs. Lucinda Cooper, John P. Cooper and Wife,
John P. Cooper, Jr.
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HISTORY OF SpUTH CAROLINA
and chivalry. He gave to the South the full meas-
ure of his devotion, yet after the war he proved his
love for a reunited country. He was for many
years deeply interested in military affairs, serving
for some time as an officer of the local militia, and
his title of colonel was bestowed upon him as an
officer of the First South Carolina Regiment. His
comrades among the Confederate veterans acknowl-
edged his many sterling qualities by making him
commander of the local camp, and later he was
made colonel on the staff of Gen. B. H. Teague.
At the close of the war he took up the study of
pharmacy, completing his studies in Charleston in
1872. At that date his health became impaired and
going to Louisville, Kentucky, he engaged in the
retail shoe business under the ^rm name of the Rebel
Shoe Company. In 1875 he came to Aiken from
Charleston, at the request of some of the physicians
of the former town, and formed a partnership
with Alfred Holmes to open a drug store. The
partnership soon dissolved, and after that Colonel
Hall was engaged in business for himself until his
death and developed an extensive establishment and
a professional reputation well known in Aiken and
surrounding territory. He was a real leader in busi-
ness affairs, and at the time of his death probably
the oldest business man in consecutive service at
Aiken. His advice was frequently sought, and he
never relaxed his efforts in behalf of the general
welfare of his community, serving several years as
a member of the City Council. He was also at one
time a director in the Aiken County Loan and Sav-
ings Bank.
He served as a vestryman of the St. Thaddeus
Episcopal Church and was closely identified with
the affairs of that institution. A devoted husband
and father, he did all he could to contribute to the
happiness and welfare of his family and showed an
interest and sympathy with the lives of others that
made his death deeply mourned by the people of the
town. The young people were especially fond of
him. In November, 1870, he married Miss Emma
J. Dawson, of Charleston, who survived him some
years. Their children were: Mrs. W. W. Edger-
ton and Mrs. R. G. Tarrant, both of Aiken; Dr.
Huger T. Hall, a prominent physician of Aiken;
Charles D. Hall, a pharmacist, who is in business
m Washington, D. C, and Henry Harrison Hall,
who died at the age of ten years.
John Thomas Long, who had three stalwart sons
in the World war, has spent a busy life chiefly as an
agriculturist in Anderson County, where he owns
one of the finest farms in the northern part of that
county.
He was born in the county June 25, i860, a son of
Rev. Ezekiel and Anna Matilda (McMurray) Long.
His great-grandfather Ezekiel Long was of Irish
ancestry, and an earhr settler in Brushy Creek Town-
ship of Anderson County. Ezekiel Long, Sr., the
grandfather, was a native of Anderson County and
married Bettie Hewey. Rev. Ezekiel Long, father
of John'T. Long, was born in Anderson County,
made a faithful record as a Confederate soldier,
and two of his brothers gained special distinction in
the Confederate army, James rising to the rank
of colonel, while John was a major. Rev. Ezekiel
Long died at the age of fifty-two, spent his life
chiefly as a farmer and Baptist minister. He married
Anna Matilda McMurray, whose father was William
McMurray and her mother a Wilson. The McMur-
rays were also of Irish ancestry. She survived her
husband many years, dying at the age of eighty-
three. Rev. £zekiel Long and wife had three sons:
James M., John T., both Anderson County farmers,
and William M., who is a successful physician at
Liberty, South Carolina. The daughters in the
family were: Elizabeth, who married N. B. Moore,
of Pickens County; Sallie J., who became the wife
of W. A. Simpson, of Greenville; and Ella, wife of
T. S. Stegall, of Anderson County.
John T. Long grew up on a farm, had a common
school education, and from boyhood to the present
time has been a practical worker and interested in
agriculture. For a few years he was a merchant
at Piedmont and in that enterprise and in the oil
mill business he was associated with his brother-in-
law, W. A. Simpson. When their store burned, en-
tailing a heavy loss, they discontinued business and
soon afterward Mr. Long bought and removed to
his present farm "Hickory Flat," formerly the Col.
D. K, Norris homestead, in the northern part of
Anderson County. The handsome brick residence
on this plantation was erected by Colonel Norris in
1884. The farm comprises over 700 acres, and under
the management of Mr. Long it is one of the chief
producers of cotton and livestock in the county. Be-
sides his home place Mr. Long owns 140 acres
nearby. He is a member of the Baptist Church.
In 1 881 he married Miss Jennie Orr, a daughter
of William Orr, of Anderson County. She died
leaving seven children: Mamie Jane, ueorge Reese,
Weston Homer, John Hovy, Terrell Orr, Cynthia
Caroline and Bessie Gertrude. The three sons who
wore uniforms of soldiers in* the recent war were
Weston Homer, John Hovy and Terrell Orr. The
only one fortunate enough to be called overseas was
John Hovy, who was with a hospital corps in France.
Mr. Long married for his present wife Miss Donna
S. McCarley. They have children named Anna A.,
James Thomas, Lewie, Genevieve and Gladys.
John Purley Cooper, of MuUins, probably had a
distinct genius for commercial affairs, in view of
his record. He had hardly attained manhood when
he was organizing and taking an active part in the
executive direction of several business concerns.
He was born at'Mullins, June 30. 1881, son of
Noah Bryant and Lucinda (Jenerette) Cooper. His
father was also a merchant and farmer educated in
the Mullins High School. He began his career as
clerk in a general store, and at the age of twenty
organized the Palmetto Grocery Company. This
business, commanding a capital of $50,000, has felt
the impetus and energy of Mr. Cooper from the
beginning:. He is secretary and treasurer of the
corporation. Mr. Cooper is also president and was
one of the organizers of the Merchants' and Planters'
Bank at Mullins, and is president of the Loris
Grocery Company of Loris, South Carolina, and
president of the Cooper Smith Company of Con-
way.
He was only twenty- four years of age when he
was elected mayor of Mullins. During the war he
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
was active in behalf of various patriotic causes, be-
ing county chairman in the Third Liberty Loan
Drive. He is a trustee of the Methodist Episcopal
Church and has some active interests in local agri-
culture, owning and operating a 200-acre farm.
January 21, 1908, he married Miss Ethel Mae
Bethea, of Dillon, daughter of Dr. J. Frank Bethea,
of Dillon. They have four children: John Purley,
Jr., Franklin Bethea, Noah Bryant and Hannah
Bethea.
John Orkin Lea, for many years city treasurer
of Charleston, was born in that city July 25, 1845.
His father, John Conyers Lea, was born in Smith-
ville. North Carolina, now Southport, March 25,
1815, a son of William Pell Lea, born in Hanover
Square, London, England, who came to America in
boyhood, going direct to North Carolina and later
to Charleston. The mother of John Orrin Lea, Mrs.
Caroline Theresa (Stanley) Lea, was also born at
Smithville, North Carolina, November 22, 1822. The
grandparents on the maternal side were Isaac Davis,
who settled in Carteret County, North Carolina, was
in the American Revolution, and he was paid for
his service on vouchers No. 26 and again on No. 190,
and was granted first 300 acres of land, and later
1,735 acres of land, and Stephen Bernard was an
officer in the United States Navy during the War of
1812, attached to the naval station at Charleston,
South Carolina.
On the paternal side, John Congers was also in
the American Revolution, and was paid on voucher
No. 2683. John Orrin Lea's father and mother were
married at Charleston, July 25, 1844, and became the
parents of nine children.
The boyhood days of John Orrin Lea were spent
in Charleston, and he attended a private school and
the Charleston Academy, and was in the public
schools at the time of the outbreak of the war of
the sixties. At that time he was a member of the
Pickens' Rifles, state troops, which in i860 did duty
at General Ripley's headquarters. Southern Wharf,
Charleston, this being regarded as one of the finest
companies in the state troops. With the call for
troops for the Confederate service this company
disbanded, its members volunteering in other com-
panies. During the latter part of the war his mother
sought greater safety in Georgia, and in order to be
near her he joined the Georgia troops, serving as
sergeant major, or acting adjutant of Col. James H.
Blount's Battalion of Cavalry, although then only
nineteen years of age. The last service performed
was while in the Wilderness, winding through Geor-
gia. The battalion was ordered by Gen. F. H. Robin-
son to bum the bridges between the Chattahooche
and Ockmulgee rivers, but when within six or seven
miles of Macon, Georgia, they were met by a flag
of truce and given the information that General Lee
had surrendered and that the war was over. The
members of the battalion took the best care they
could of themselves and made their way home in
different directions. Mr. Lea's father was taken
prisoner and confined at Fort Delaware, where he
contracted disease and was released, but died on his
way home at the South Carolina Hospital, May 10,
1863, at Petersburg, Virginia. His remains now lie
in the old Episcopal graveyard at Petersburg.
After the war Mr. Lea returned to Charleston in
1866 and in a few years entered the city treasurer's
office. As he had left school at such an early age,
he felt the need of further instruction, so attended
a night school while working for his uncle, Mr.
Stephen Thomas, then city treasurer, as clerk, and
when Mr. W. L. Campbell succeeded his uncle he
continued in the office as chief clerk. Upon the
death of Mr. Campbell in 1893, Mr. Lea was elected
city treasurer, continuing as such until the time of
his death, June 22, 1919, having been for fifty-two
continuous years in service in this department, al-
though five administrations had come and gone since
his first election.
Under his administration as city treasurer Charles-
ton was the first city to adopt a uniform system of
classification of accounts, of receipts and expendi-
tures of cities over 30,000 population, and he made
many other improvements in his department.
Mr. Lea was first married to Susan Bee, bom at
Charleston, and their children were as follows:
Dr. Norman S. Lea, who is a dentist; Campbell
Adams, who is deceased, and Mary K. His second
marriage was with Harriet Parker, and they had
two children, namely: Harriet S. and J. O. Lea, Jr.,
who served during the great war and is the
fourth generation of his family to enter the service
of his country. Mr. Lea was a member of Camp
Sumter No. 250, Confederate Veterans ; of the South
Carolina Society of the Sons of the Revolution, and
was assistant adjutant general on the staff of the
late General Davis and Gen. B. H. Teagrue, com-
manding the South Carolina Division of Confederate
Veterans. Mr. Lea found in the First Presbyterian
Church of Charleston the medium for the expression
of his religious faith.
William A. .G. Jameson has some unusual dis-
tinctions as a successful farmer in the northern
part of Anderson County. Reared on a farm, with
only a common school education, in iSSo at the
time of his marriage he moved to the land he now
occupies and with the aid of one small mule put
in and gathered his first crop. It was a humble
beginning, but he and his wife had the energy,
the thrift and the ambition which are the keynotes
of success. Into their modest home came by birth
seventeen children, fifteen of whom are still living,
eleven sons an\i four daughters. This family of
itself constitutes real wealth, and it is a matter of
lasting satisfaction to Mr. and Mrs. Jameson that
the children have been well reared and given good
school advantages.
Mr. Jameson was bom in Pickens County Jan-
uary 5, 1862, a son of McElroy and Margaret (Fer-
guson) Jameson. His ancestry is a derivation of
Scotch-Irish. Irish and English stock. His parents
were both bom in Pickens County. His ^and-
father William Jameson was a native of Virginia
and of Scotch-Irish descent. The matemal grand-
father James Ferguson was of Irish lineage and
his wife a Miss Dean was English. McElroy Jame-
son se'ryed as a Confederate soldier, and his life
occupation was farming.
William A, G. Jameson married in 1880 Miss
Lillie Griffin who was bom in Pickens County.
Mr. Jameson is a deacon in the Baptist Church.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
9
William David Barnes. *Throu|;h struggle to
triumph" seems to be the maxim which holds sway
for the majority of our successful citizens, and,
though it is undoubtedly true that many fall ex-
hausted in the conflict, a few by their inherent force
of character and strong mentality rise above their
environment and all which seems to hinder them,
until they reach the plane of affluence towards
which their face was set through the long years of
struggle that must necessarily precede any ac-
complishment of ^eat magnitude. Such has been
the history of William D. Barnes, who through a
long, busy and useful life has held the confidence of
the people among whom he has labored and with
whom he has mingled. In the history of his com-
munity his name occupies a conspicuous place, for
he has been one of its representative men of af-
fairs, progressive, enterprising and persevering.
William David Barnes was born in Beaufort (now
Hampton) County, South Carolina, on August i8,
1859, and . is the son of William G. and Eusula
(Rivers) Barnes. William G. Barnes, who was a
life long resident of Beaufort County, was a soldier
in the Confederate army during the Civil war and
followed the vocation of farming. His father, Wil-
liam Ransom Barnes, who was descended from old
English stock, wa^ also a native of Beaufort, where
' he became prominent as one of the leading early
farmers and planters of that locality. The subject's
mother was a daughter of David Rivers, of Hamp-
ton County, this state. By her union with William
G. Barnes she became the mother of nine children,
six sons and three daughters, the subject of this
review being the eldest of the children.
William D. Barnes was reared on his father's
farm and received a common school education. He
remained with his father until he had saved about
three hundred dollars, with which he built a small
store building, about ten miles north of Brunson and
near his birthplace. There he conducted a general
store for a few years and met with success in the
enterprise. His business experience thus far so en-
couraged him that he bought a lot at Brunson and
built a store, which he operated for about ten years,
when the store and entire stock was burned, and.
there being no insurance, he lost ever3rthing.
Nothing daunted, however, he immediately put up a
frame building, which still stands and is now used
for a warehouse. He again engaged in mercantile
operations and again found himself on the road to
success. He was keenly alive to his opportunities
and, with keen foresight as to the future of this
locality, he organized the Moore-Barnes Company
in 1012 and erected the present substantial and com-
modious store building, of brick, 70 by 145 feet in
dimensions, two stories high, in which they are now
conducting their operations as general merchants.
They carry a stock valued at $50,000 and in 1918
did a business of about a quarter million dollars, it
being the largest and most successful business enter-
prise of the kind in this, section of the country. In
addition to his mercantile interests Mr. Barnes is
the owner of several fine tracts of farm land con-
tiguous to Brunson, amounting in all to about t,8oo
acres, practically all of which are devoted to general
farming. Mr. Barnes also gives considerable atten-
tion to the raising and breeding of thoroughbred
stock, in which he has been very successful. He is
connected with the Brunson Warehouse Company
and is identified with a number of enterprises which
have had an important bearing on the commercial,
activity of Brunson. He is a member of the board
of trustees of the Brunson High School and was
himself mainly instrumental in securing the erection
of the new high school building. He has also been
actively interested in promoting the development of
the artesian wells in this community.
Mr. Barnes has been twice married, first, in 1891,
to Angie Brunson, the daughter of F. Brunson, of
the town of that name. Mrs. Barnes died ^nd
some time afterward Mr. Barnes married Bertha
Brunson, a sister of his first wife. This second
union has resulted in the birth of two children,
William Forrest,* who has just returned from
France, where he was in the military service of the
United States, and Fay Breland, who is now a stu-
dent at Greenwood, South Carolina.
Fraternally Mr. Barnes is a member of the
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and the Knights
of Pythias. His religious affiliation is with the
Baptist Church, to which he is a liberal contributor.
In the best sense of the term, he is one of the rep-
resentative men of his community, being public spir-
ited and enterprising to an unwonted degree, while
as a friend and neighbor he combines the qualities
of head and heart that have won confidence and
commanded respect.
Leo Wetherhorn. The gentleman whose life his-
tory is herewith outlined is a man who has lived to
good purpose and achieved a large degree of suc-
cess, solely by his individual efforts. By a straight-
forward and commendable course Mr. Wetherhorn
has made his way to a respectable position in the
industrial world, winning the hearty admiration of
the people of his community and earning a reputa-
tion as an enterprising, progressive man of affairs
which the public has not been slow to recognize and
appreciate. Those wlio know him best will readily
acquiesce in the statement that he is eminently de-
serving of the material success which has crowned
his efforts and of the high esteem in which he is
held.
Leo Wetherhorn was bom in Charleston on the
25th day of May, 1872. His father. Levy Wether-
horn, who also was a native of Charleston, was a
soldier in the Confederate army from 1861 to 1865.
He was the son of Marcus Wetherhorn, a native of
Poland, who emigrated to the United States and
located at Charleston, where he lived the remainder
of his life and died. The subject's mother, whose
maiden name was Pena Pincus, was a native of
Germany, who was brought to Charleston by an
uncle, who died here at the age of about seventy-
two years. The subject is the third in order of
birth of the nine children born to his parents. He
was reared here and received his education in the
Charleston public schools. At the age of thirteen
years he went to werk in a planing mill and thus
early in life began laying the foundation for the
successful and prosperous career which he later was
to enjoy. He thoroughly learned every detail of
the business, applied himself closely to his work
and was wisely economical of his resources, so that
in 1894 he was enabled to buy an interest in the
business, the -firm name becoming Wetherhorn &
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Fisher. Subsequently, on the death of Mr. Fisher,
the subject became the sole owner of the business.
The firm is now known as Wetherhorn & Son and
is numbered among the prosperous and enterprising
firms of the city. The main business is the manu-
facture of sash, doors and blinds and the products
of this mill are sold at many points outside of
Charleston, besides a large and constantly growing
trade in the city. About seventy-five persons are
constantly employed. Mr. Wetherhorn is also finan-
cially interested in other enterprises in Charleston,
contributing to the growth and prosperity of the city,
particularly in the line of real estate companies.
Thus, he is president of the Crown Realty Company,
president of the Exchange Realty Company, a di-
rector of the Unity Realty Company, and is other-
wise giving of his time and finances to enterprises
of a laudable order.
In 1896 Mr. Wetherhorn was married to Rosa
Kahn and to them have been born eight children,
namely: Sophia, Ernest, Raymond, Corrine, Rosalie,
Mildred, Leo, Jr., and Lester.
Fraternally, Mr. Wetherhorn is a member of the
Masonic order, in which he has taken the thirty-
second degree of the Scottish Rite; he is also a
member of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of
the Mystic Shrine and of the Benevolent and Pro-^
tective Order of Elks. He has taken a keen interest
in these fraternal orders and is a past master of his
Masonic lodge, a distinct honor in that time-honored
order. Religiously he is a member of the Synagogrue
R. K. B. E., being vice president of that congrega-
tion. A lifelong residence in this city has but
strengthened his hold on the hearts of the people
with whom he has been associated^ and today no one
enjo}rs a larger circle of warm friends and acquain-
tances, who esteem him because of his sterling qual-
ities of character and his business ability.
CoL. William Handsford Duncan. Barnwell
County has had the good fortune and distinction of
claiming the citizenship of a William Handsford
Duncan in each of three successive generations. The
first of them was the late Col. William Handsford
Duncan, an able soldier, successful business man and
public spirited citizen, whose life was a constant
influence affecting the advancement and welfare of
his community and his state. His death in i88g re-
moved from South Caroli;ia a substantial and highly
esteemed citizen and the many tributes at that time
to his high standing in the world of affairs and as
a man and citizen attested to the abiding place he had
in the hearts and affections of those who knew him
and of his work and accomplishment. His career
was not a path of roses, but he fought against and
conquered adverse conditions that would have utter-
ly discouraged one of less sterling mettle. His mili-
tary' record was marked by courage and ability of a
high order, his business record showed that he pos-
sessed industry, energy and inte^ity to a pronounced
degree, while his interest in public affairs was of that
practical kind that is of real permanent value to the
community and state.
He was bom in Barnwell County. South Carolina.
August 22, 183s, and died December 14, 1889. He
was of old Scotch stock and disolaved those solid
elements of character typical of that race. His
father Willis Jennings Duncan was born and reared
in Fauquier County, Virginia, and came to South
Carolina with his father Joseph Dtmcan who was
a soldier of the War of the Revolution.
William H. Duncan was a resident of Barnwell
practically all his life, secured his education in its
public schools and began his business career in that
community, though his interests later embraced other
sections of the state. He applied himself with energy
and sound judgment to his varied enterprises, and
his progressive attitude made him a factor in various
projects for the public good. He constructed and
owned the railroad line from Barnwell to Black-
ville, this being the second railroad chartered in
South Carolina. The completion of the road was
stopped by the war between the states, much of the
material being confiscated and taken to Morris
Island where it was used in the construction of
breastworks.
At the outbreak of the war Colonel Duncan
promptly enlisted as a private but was soon com-
missioned as captain of Company E of the First
South Carolina Regiment, subsequently becoming
colonel of that regiment. He proved a valiant and
able soldier and served tmder Gen. Joseph E.
Johnston with distinguished gallantry. After the
war Colonel Duncan retired to his home farm,
called "Duncannon," where he spent most of his
time, though he did not by any means shut himself
away from the activities about him, maintaining a
deep interest in all public affairs and giving his
active support to public movements and measures
promising permanent value to the welfare of the
people and state. He was especially active in the
Baptist Sunday School work, to which he gave
hearty support with his time and means. In his
career no word of suspicion was ever breathed
against him. His activities were the result of care-
ful and conscientious thought and when once con-
vinced that he was right no suggestion of policy
or personal profit swerved him from the course he
had decided upon. His career was complete and
rounded in its beautiful simplicity, he did his full
duty in all the relations of life, and he died be-
loved by those near to him and respected and es-
teemed by his fellow citizens.
Colonel Duncan married Harriet M. Harley, who
was born and reared in Barnwell, daughter of Jacob
R. Harley, a prominent planter and slave owner of
that place. She survived her husband a number of
years, her death occurring June 22, 1896. The four
children of that union were: Willis J. Duncan,
now in business at Edgefield, South Carolina; Wil-
liam Handsford II; Daisv, wife of P. M. Bucking-
ham, whose career is elsewhere sketched in this
publication: and Maude, a resident of Barnwell and
widow of W. F. Holmes.
In every respect the late William Handsford Dun-
can, second, was well qualified to adorn the name
he bore. He was born at Duncannon, South Caro-
lina. July 14, i860. For many years he pursued his
business as a farmer and planter, and at the same
time took an active part in county politics. In 1904
he was elected countv auditor of Bamweir Countv. ,
filling that office until 1910. In 1012 he was elected
clerk of the Court of Common Pleas and General
Sessions, and gave an earnest and dignified per-
formance of the duties of that office until his death
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
11
on January 7, 1920. He lived not quite sixty years,
but years alone would hardly offer a proper measure
for his influence and achievement. During the
World war he was chairman of the local exemption
board. From early youth until the end of his career
he conducted a farm of several hundred acres, with
crops of cotton, corn and garden truck, and also
owned landed and other interests at Barnwell. Fra-
ternally he was affiliated wiUi the Knights of
Pythias.
June 4, 1888, at Barnwell he married Miss Cor-'
nelia Aldrich, a native of Barnwell and daughter of
Judge A. P. Aldrich, one of South Carolina's notable
figures. Mrs. Duncan died January 4, 1920, just
three days before her husband. Her death occurred
at Conway, South Carolina, where she was visiting
at the home of her daughter Nell, wife of W. A.
Freeman. W. H. Duncan II and his wife had six
children, two of whom died in infancy, Langdon
Chevis and Mary Allen Duncan. The four sur-
viving are: 'Nell Aldrich, wife of W. A. Freeman;
William Handsford Duncan III ; Martha Ayer, wife
of James C. Patterson, a mechanical engineer now
living at Kansas City, Missouri; and Miss Louise
Chevis Duncan of Barnwell.
The third William Handsford Duncan has to his
credit an interesting military and patriotic record
and a place of prommence in the affairs of Barnwell
County. He was bom October 24, 1890, near Barn-
well, was educated in the common and high schools
of his native town and began his career in railroad
construction work, a line he followed until America
entered the war with Germany. He volunteered in
Troop A of the South Carolina Cavalry, and was
in service altogether twenty-seven months, eighteen
months overseas. He went overseas with the Thir-
tieth Division, and was with that famous organiza-
tion comprising many South Carolina troops when
it broke the Hindenburg line on the Somme River.
He was with the* Thirtieth in all its terrific en-
gagements, but came through without injury. He
went in as a private and wore the stripes of ser-
geant, first class, when discharged in November,
1919.
Upon the death of his .honored father he was ap-
pointed by Governor R. A. Cooper to fill the unex-
pired term as Qerk of Court of Common Pleas and
General Sessions of Barnwell County, and has given
a splendid administration of the office. At the same
time he is the active manager of the extensive
planting and farming interests left by his father.
George G. Palmer. The achievements and leader-
ship of South Carolina in the agricultural affairs of
the South are readily demonstrated. Those achieve-
ments are due not so much to the unrivaled natural
resources of the state, as to the initiative and enter-
prise of its citizens. In this modem phase of de-
velopment no individual accomplished more along
broader lines than the late George G. Palmer, whose
early death was a blow to the business, agricultural
and civic interests of his native state. Death al-
ways sitting by the highway of life chose a sin-
gularly conspicuous victim when it took him away
in February, 1920, at the age of thirty-five. Never-
theless he left a record of mature and enduring
achievements in the line he had chosen for his life
work.
Mr. Palmer possessed a keen intellect, active brain
and had the intuition and the breath enabling him
to comprehend a great vision, and also the force of
character, the grasp of detail to shape and translate
a vision into terms of effective reality. For some
years he had enjoyed the reputation of a leader as
a stock raiser, planter and merchant While his
home and interests were concentrated at his Duroc
hog farm at Cartersville, his influence was felt
throughout South Carolina. Progressive, broad-
minded, he was singularly modest and retiring in
disposition, and had a personal charm that caused
every acquaintance to become a personal fric
His happy, jovial disposition brought him not only
the respect and esteem but the admiration and love
of all with whom he came in contact.
George G. Palmer was the son of Dr. G. G.
Palmer, a well-known physician of Cartersville
who died in 1906. The son at once took charge of
everything for his mother, including the responsibil-
ity of educating his sister and brothers, and forth-
with entered upon plans of enlargement and in-
crease in the planting and business interests of the
family. He was devoted heart and soul to the
raising of the standards of livestock industry in
the state, and in bringing in pure bred stock he
spared neither money nor effort, and made a won-
derful success in that as in everjrthing he undertook.
His specialty was pure bred Duroc hogs, and with
the establishment of his hog plant known as the
Duroc Hog Farms at Cartersville, he gave that
town an enviable reputation as the home of some
of the best bred hogs in America. He paid what
many regarded as fabulous sums for his breeding
stock, but for one animal he refused an offer of
$10,000, and during the last year of his life his
sales of pure bred hogs aggregated over $50,000.
Fortunately the business is insured continuance and
increased vitality under the efficient management
of his wife Mary Keith Palmer.
Mr. Palmer attended school at Thompsons Mili-
tary Academy in Siler City, North Carolina, spent
two years at Guilford College at Greensboro, and
one year in Davidson College. He was a concien-
tious and able student, and showed brilliance as an
orator and was awarded three medals for his work
in that field. He was a member of the college
fraternities. On leaving college, while his abilities
would have promised him credit and advancement
in professions, he immediately began his life work
as a planter and stock man. In a comparatively
few years he became one of the largest land owners
in Florence County, and also a merchant on a large
scale. The Duroc hog farms turned out many
champions and its products carried off ribbons and
prizes wherever exhibited. Mr. Palmer was organ-
izer of the first Duroc Hog Association of the state,
and was its secretary until the fall of 191 9. He
had the satisfaction of knowing that his was the
largest hog farm east of the Mississippi. He was
in great demand as a speaker on stock raising and
agricultural subjects in general, and magazines and
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
newspapers assigned special members of their staff
to write up his live stock, his farm, his personal
management and ideals.
He was a valued member of the Presbyterian
Church, was active in the Masonic Order and
Shrine, and was an Elk and Woodman of the
World.
In 1907 he married Miss Mary Izler Keith, a
daughter of Charles B. and Carrie Keith of Tim-
monsville and a sister of Maj. James B. Keith of
that city. She received her early training in the
graded schools of Columbia and Savannah and grad-
uated from the Ursuline Convent at Columbia.
Mrs. Palmer as noted above continues the manage-
ment of the Duroc hog farms and is also carefully
superintending the home education and training of
her five sons, named: George G. Palmer, Jr.,^
Charles Keith Palmer, Richard AUston Palmer, Joe
Bean Palmer and James Bascom Palmer.
The late Mr. Palmer was also survived by his
mother, Mrs. Mary Palmer, a sister, Mrs. N. E.
Moore of Timmonsville, and his brothers Dr. J. S.
Palmer, a prominent physician of Allendale, Capt.
O. A. Palmer of the Fourth Cavalry, U. S A, B.
M. Palmer of the College of Charleston, B. W.
Palmer and Lockwood Palmer of McAllen, Texas.
E. T. H. Shaffer. Deeds are thoughts crystal-
ized, and according to their brilliancy do we judge
the worth of a man to the country which produced
him, and in his works we expect to find the true in-
dex to his character. The study of the life of the
representative American never fails to offer much
of pleasing interest and valuable instruction, de-
veloping a mastering of expedients which has
brought about definite results. The subject of this
review is a worthy representative of that type of
American character and of that progressive spirit
which promotes public good in advancing individual
prosperity and conserving popular interests. Mem-
bers of the Shaffer family have long been identified
with affairs in Colleton County, and while their en-
deavors along material lines have brought them
success they have also contributed their share to the
general welfare of the whole community.
E. T. H. Shaffer was born at Walterboro, South
Carolina, on June 20, 1880, and is the son of A. C.
and Amelia (Terry) Shaffer, A. C. Shaffer was a
native of Sussex County, New Jersey, whence he
came to Walterboro in 1865 and engaged in the
mercantile business, to which he devoted himself up
to the time of his death. His ancestors originally
were from the Rhine Palatinate, Germany. The
subject's mother was bom in Elmira, New York, the
daughter of John K. Terry, a native of Long Island.
She died in Walterboro. The subject of this sketch
is her only child by her union with A. C. Shaffer.
E. T. H. Shaffer received his elementary educa-
tion in the public schools of Walterboro. after which
he became a student in the Charleston College, where
he was graduated in 1902, with the degree of Bache-
lor of Arts. He at once engaged in the mercantile
business and in farming, in which lines he succeeded
his father and his maternal grandfather. The gen-
eral store operated by him was known as one of the
leading mercantile establishments of the kind in this
locality.
Mr. Shaffer sold all his mercantile interests in
1919. In the fall of 1919 the citizens of Colleton
County held a mass meeting to consider what steps
should be taken to meet Sie agricultural changes
which would be caused by the boll weevil. Mr.
Shaffer, with Mr. Paul Ss^nders, of Ritter, was sent
as a committee of investigation into Southern Geor-
gia and the kesmote of their report was that the
farmer could continue to prosper only through
diversification and that successful diversified farm-
ing can only be accomplished by a greater degree
of co-operation than ever existed under a one-crop
system; that by co-operation alone can the proper
handling and the proper marketing of the varied
farm products be accomplished.
The Colleton Products' Association, of which Mr.
Shaffer is now the president, is a concrete evidence
of his idea. It is a $100,000 corporatibn with head
offices at Walterboro and with hundreds of stock-
holders among the farmers and business men of Col-
leton County. This company has built a modern
grain elevator at Walterboro to handle the increased
grain crops, the first in the state and with a capacity
of 15,000 bushels. It has also built a chain of
sweet potato curing houses over the county to turn
the prolific southern sweet potato into the "sugar-
spud" for the northern market.
Trained demonstrators are kept at work in the
field to instruct the farmer in the new method.
Especial attention is also given to seed distribution.
As a result of the work of this company Colleton
County in 1920 increased its grain acreage sixty
per cent and increased Spanish peanuts from zero
to 5,000 acres, all with a corresponding loss to "King
Cotton."
The people of Colleton Counfy determined that
as the county had proven the most effective political
unit for reaching the individual in the political sphere,
that a county organized as a commercial unit will
be found the most effective method of effecting the
vast economic change which the boll weevil causes
in all parts of the cotton growing South.
Mr. Shaffer owns a business block in the Town
of Walterboro and is the owner of about 2,000
acres of excellent farming land in Colleton County,
and to which he gives careful attention. He is also
a stockholder and a director of the Farmers and
Merchants Banl^ of Walterboro. His entire life
has been spent in this locality, and no one enjoys
to a greater degree the universal confidence and
esteem of the people.
In 191 1 Mr. Shaffer was married to Clara Barr,
of Greenville, South Carolina, the daughter of
George T. Barr, and they are the parents of two
children, Jane Terry and E. T. H., Jr.
Fraternally Mr. Shaffer is a member of the
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and the Knig^hts
of Pythias. He is also a member of the South
Carolina Historical Society, the Carolina Yacht Club,
of Charleston, and the Alpha Tau Omega Greek-
letter fraternity.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
13
Judge James Aldrich. Son of a distinguished
South Carolina lawyer, patriot and. jurist, the late
Judge James Aldrich exemplified many of the splen-
did qualities of his father and also the beautiful
side of his mother's nature, and was one of the
state's real noblemen. His abilities and character
were highly appreciated, and so papular was he
that whenever a candidate for public office he never
had any opposition.
He represented the eighth generation of an Eng-
lish family that was planted on New England soil
at the very beginning of the Massachusetts Bay
Colony. His first ancestor was George Aldrich, who
married Catherine Seald in 1629, and in November,
1631, they set out from Derbyshire, England, and
came to America. George Aldrich became a large
land owner in Worcester County, Massachusetts.
His son, Jacob Aldrich, born February 2^ 1656,
lived the life of a Massachusetts farmer. The third
deration was represented by Moses Aldrich, born
in 1691 and died September 9, 1781. He was an
elder of the Friends Society and gave much of his
time to the preaching of the Gospel. He married
Hannah White in 171 1, and their ninth child was
Luke Aldrich, bom February 22, 1727.
Esek Aldrich, son of Luke and Anna (French)
AWrich, was bom September 9, 1753, and married
Amy Whipple.
The sixth generation was represented by Robert
Aldrich, who was born at Mendon, Massachusetts,
February i, 1780. After completing his education
he came to Charleston, South Carolma, about 1800,
and went to work in a bookstore, the branch of a
Boston establishment About two years later he and
a partner opened a book store of their own, but
largely through mismanagement on the partner's
score the firm failed. Robert Aldrich then called
his creditors together and promised paynient in full
of all indebtedness, and though it required nearly
half of his life to accomplish the task he kept his
word and thereby established a character for in-
tegrity and intelligence that neither misfortune nor
disaster could impair. His work the rest of his life
was as manager of the Commercial Wharves of
Charleston, and after his death the proprietors of the
wharves inscribed upon his monument the follow-
ing: "Sacred to the memory of Robert Aldrich,
who died in this city on the 9th of April, 1851,
aged seventy-one years, two months and nine days.
He was bom at Mendon, Massachusetts, but spent
the last fifty years of his life in South Carolina.
Forty-two years of which he held the most confiden-
tial station on the Commercial Wharves, the duties
of which he performed with the most exemplary
fidelity. He has left a large family and circle of
friends to mourn his death and has gone to his final
rest much respected and lamented."
Robert Aldrich married Ann Hawkins Lebby,
granddaughter' of Nathaniel Lebby, a distinguished
South Carolina patriot in the Colonial and Revolu-
tionary period. She died April 22, 1830.
The fourth son of Robert and Ann Hawkins Aid-
rich was James Thomas Aldrich, whose career as
an eminent South Carolinian deserves space in this
publication. He was born at Charleston, November
16, 1819, While on account of his father's circum-
stances he could not acquire a college education, he
was a constant reader, devoted to the classics and
the best modern literature, and for many years held
rank among the state's most cultured gentlemen.
He finished his law studies in the office of his
brother. Judge A. P. Aldrich, at Bamwell, and was
admitted to the bar in 1842. For a time he prac-
ticed with his brother and later alone, and through
his abilities, his wide learning and his character
justly attained distinction and eminence in his' pro-
fession. After his marriage he enjoyed fourteen
years of happiness and success at home, in his friend-
ships and in his profession at Barnwell. Then came
the war, and he served as a commissioned officer
of the Confederacy, being a captain the last three
years of the war. Most of the time he was sta-
tioned in Columbia, assigned to department work.
In the meantime his home was in the path of the
destroying army of Sherman, but was faithfully de-
fended by Mrs. Aldrich, though most of the prop-
erty and many of the most prized possessions were
burnt or despoiled. He resumed the practice- of law
and though beset by ill health and blindness caused
as and by result of his services in the war, and the
general misfortunes of the state, he battled bravely
until the end, though he did not live to see the final
restoration of white rule. He died September 26,
1875.
June 30, 1847, James T. Aldrich married Isabel
Coroneus Patterson, who was born at Barnwell May
24, 1829. Her grandparents were Alexander and
Elizabeth Patterson, of Scotch ancestry. Her father,
Angus Patterson, was born in North Carolina De-
cember 5, 1790, and in 1808 came to South Carolina,
where he taught school, studied law, and after his
admission to the bar located at Barnwell in 1813.
He lived at ISarnwell until his death in 1854, leav-
ing a distinguished record as a lawyer, citizen and
public leader. He represented his county in the
General Assembly of the state for thirty-two con-
secutive years, from 181 8 to 1850, the first four
years in the House and the remaining twenty-eight
years as senator, the last twelve of which he was
president of the Senate. Mrs. James T. Aldrich
had every educational advantage that cultured par-
ents and wealth could give. She completed her
training in Limestone College, graduating with the
first honor of her class in her eighteenth year, and
was married soon afterward. James T. Aldrich and
wife enjoyed a marriage companionship that repre-
sented the ideals of a perfect union. Through all
the vicissitudes of the darkest and most eventful
period of the country's history she did her duty
well, proving the faithful helpmate, prudent coun-
selor, frugal housewife and devoted and watchful
mother. After the war both she and her husband
looked after the education of their children, and both
were eminently qualified for those responsibilities.
She educated her daughters and prepared, in great
part her son for college. She shared with her hus-
band an ardent love of literature, and both had
exceptional gifts as writers. She survived her hus-
band more than a quarter of a century.
Judge James Aldrich, who was the only son of
James T. and Isabel Aldrich, was bom in the vil-
lage of Barnwell July 25, 1850, and was old enough
to appreciate many of the horrors of war and the
reconstruction period. He enjoyed a sound
physique, and, as noted above, his early education
was largely directed by his father and mother. He
attended a preparatory school conducted by Rev.
B. F. B. Perry until about 1862. During the re-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
mainder of the war he lived with his mother on a
plantation at Edisto River, and continued his studies
under his mother's guidance. In the winter of 1864-
65 a company was recruited in Barnwell by Doctor
Roper, founder of the Roper Hospital in Charleston.
It was known as the "Cradle and Grave" Company,
composed of boys and old men. Though only four-
teen years of age, when the war ended James Aldrich
entered the service, after having twice been rejected
before. He took with him for the use of the com-
pany his father's carriage, horses and wagon. After
the passing of the destroying army he used this
equipment to collect some supplies for his destitute
family in a region that had not been visited by
Sherman's troopers. While on this expedition he
used his horses and wagons to haul goods for the
merchants from Branchville to Barnwell, a distance
of forty miles, and continued that work until the
railroad was rebuilt. Then for two years he farmed,
performing the common labor of the fields.
In 1869 he entered Washington and Lee Univer-
sity at Lexington, Virginia, and practically com-
pleted the course, though he had to leave college
in 1872 on account of his means being exhausted.
While in college he was a member of the Graham-
Lee Literary Society and represented it on several
occasions. One of his most prized recollections was
that he enjoyed the personal friendship of Gen.
Robert £. Lee, and was often a visitor in his home.
General Lee was president of Washington and Lee
University at the time and died while James Aldrich
was in college. He was chosen one of the Guard of
Honor to attend the body of the "Matchless Lee"
as it lay in state before interment
Returning to Barnwell in 1872 he took up the dili-
gent study of law under his father and was admitted
to the bar January 20, 1873. After his admission he
located at Aiken, and early achieved distinction as a
lawyer of brilliant powers and enjoyed a large pri-
vate practice there until 1889. While at Aiken he ren-
dered all the service he could in behalf of peace
and order and the restoration of white government.
He aided in the organization of the Palmetto Rifles,
became first lieutenant and later captain, and com-
manded the company during its service at the Ellen-
ton and other riots. The company was disbanded
by the republk:an or carpet bag governor, but the men
maintained the organization under the guise of a
social club, and privately bought Winchester rifles
to use in safeguarding society and private property.
Later on James Aldrich was one of the attorneys
that successfully defended the EUenton Rioters be-
fore the United States Court in Charleston, South
Carolina.
Judge Aldrich also became identified with the
reconstruction politics of the state. He was an
opponent of fusion tickets and advocated a straight-
out democratic nomination. On this platform of
action he distinguished himself at the democratic
convention in May, 1876, but the convention hesitated
to adopt his program, though later in the same
year Governor Hampton was nominated by the
"unterrified democracy," and his election finally
redeemed the state from misrule. Judge Aldrich
took a prominent part in that memorable cam-
paign. Later he was elected to the House of Rep-
resentatives from Aiken County, serving from De-
cember, 1878, until December, 1884, when he de-
clined re-election. However, he was again elected
in December, 1886, and continued in the House
until December, 1889.
In December, 1889, he began the service with
which his name will be always associated, when he
went on the bench as judge of the Second Judicial
District, at first including the counties of Aiken,
Barnwell, Hampton, Beaufort and Colleton, and later
Bamberg. In the first fifteen of the eighteen years
he was on the bench he never missed a term ot
court, and frequently heard cases at night. Many of
the trials at which he presided involved important
and exciting issues, and he rendered many decisions
whose opinions are still quoted as authority.
It was given to Judge James Aldrich to find
his calling. He truly loved his work, alwavs find-
ing it a joy. Coming from a long line of lawyers,
of which he once counted eighteen judges of the
name, the calling was congenial, and as he was
possessed of a very impartial mind, and was a stu-
dent and a scholar, he was eminently fitted for the
judgeship. As one paper expressed it when ill
health compelled him to resign the work he loved.
"His ability was as unquestioned as his private
life was spotless." A few words but they picture
a life of integrity and achievement.
Though his life was distinguished by many
achievements and honors, his death at fifty-nine
years of age, came when in the fullness of his
powers, and was therefore regarded as nothing less
than a calamity to his native state. He was always
deeply interested in educational affairs, assisting
in organizing the Aiken Institute and became its first
president. He was a member of the South Carolina
Historical Society, was an active Mason, and a
prominent layman of the Episcopal Church. He was
for years a director of the Bank of Aiken, now the
Bank of Western Carolina.
December 15, 1874, Judge Aldrich married Miss
Frances Lebby, of Charleston, South Carolina. Of
the three children born to their union the only
survivor is Anna Lebby, wife of Dr. Huger T. Hall»
of Aiken, South Carolina.
Francis Winfield Towles. It is a compliment
worthily bestowed to say that South Carolina is hon-
ored by the citizenship of Francis Winfield Towles,
of Martins Point, for he has achieved definite suc-
cess through his own efforts and is thoroughly de-
serving of the proud American title of self-made
man, the term being one that, in its better sense,
cannot but appeal to the loyal admiration of all who
are appreciative of our national institutions and the
privileges afforded for individual accomplishment.
Another reason for singling out Mr. Towles for
specific mention in this work is the fact that to him
is in a large measure due the development of the
truck growing industry of the South, for he made
the first outside shipments and showed the way to
success along new lines, which thousands of others
have successfully followed during the subsequent
years.
F. W. Towles was bom in Savannah, Georgia, on
February 29, 1848, and is the son of Daniel Freeman
and Ann (English) Towles. His paternal grand-
parents were James and Mary (Watts) Towles, the
former of whom was born at Edgefield, South
Carolina, and the latter in the same state. Daniel
F. Towles was born in Bryan County, Georgia, as
was his wife, who was the daughter of Reubeit
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
15
English. They were reared and married in Bryan
County, Georgia, and reared three sons, Henry A.,
Francis W. and Daniel H., of whom the eldest and
youngest are deceased, the subject being the only
member of the family living.
F. W. Towles spent his boyhood days on the
parental farmstead in Georgia and received such
education as was afforded in the log cabin schools
of that period. At the early age of fourteen years
he began life's battle on his own account. His hrst
employment was as a fireman on the Atlantic & Gulf
Railroad, now known as the Coast Line. He per-
formed this work about a year and then went to
Alabama and secured a similar job on the Mont-
gomery & West Point Railroad. He was soon pro-
moted to the other side of the cab and ran as pas-
senger engineer on that road until the close of the
war between the states. He then returned to Savan-
nah and was employed in a sawmill and at any kind
of work which he could find to do. He then came
to Martins Point, South Carolina, and worked for
his father and William Geraty for a while. Deter-
mined to be independent, he then started farming
operations on his own account, renting a place on
Goose Creek, where he raised a crop of potatoes,
but here he lost practically all his money. He then
returned to railroad ^work, serving as engineer on
the Savannah & Charleston Railroad for about two
years. In 1871 Mr. Towles returned to Martins
Point and engaged in farming and merchandising.
He also operated a cotton gin and engaged in buy-
ing and selling cotton. From the beginning of these
last operations he was successful and increased his
operations as time went on until he became one of
the large land owners of this section, his holdings
amounting to about nine hundred acres. He em-
ploys on an average about fifty hands and raises a
wide variety of products, including besides cotton
and corn, vegetables of all kinds. Mr. Towles has
been rightfully called the father of the truck grow-
ing industry in the South, for it was he who first
demonstrated the feasibility and profit in growing
and shipping vegetables to outside markets. He
proved a successful manager in everything to which
he applied himself, and now, in the evening of his
life, he is. able to rest from his labors and enjoy the
fruits of his former efforts.
F. W. Towles has been married three times, first,
in 1869, to Annie Allsbrooks, who bore him two
daughters, Josephine and Ella. His second marriage
was to Mary Geraty, to which union were born three
children, Beatrice, deceased; Francis E. and Daniel
Q. The third marriage of the subject was to Anna
Schaffer, and they have four children living, Frank
W., Janice, John O. and Archer Baker.
Fraternally Mr. Towles is a member of the
Knights of Pythias. He is a genial and approach-
able man, who has won and retained a host of loyal
friends, for he has shown himself to be the possessor
of those qualities which make a true man.
Stonewall Jackson Rumph, one of the leading
plauiters and merchants of Yonges Island, is one of
th€ prominent men of his neighborhood, and one who
is held in high esteem because of his uprightness and
ability. He was born near Saint George, South
Carolina, August 26, 1864, a son of Samuel D.
Rumph and grandson of Jacob Rumph. Prior to the
American Revolution three brothers by the name of
Rumph came to the colonies from Germany, and one
settled in Georgia, one in Florida and the third in
South Carolina. Samuel D. Rumph was born in
what is now Dorchester County, South Carolina, and
his wife, who bore the maiden name of Martha F.
Bowman, was also born in South Carolina, and was
reared near Saint George, her parents being early
settlers of the state. The children born to Samuel
D. Rumph and his wife were six in number, and
of them Stonewall Jackson Rumph was the fourth.
Three of these children are still living.
Stonewall Jackson Rumph was reared near Saint
George, South Carolina, and attended the Porter
Military College at Charleston, following which he
learned telegraphy and was operator and agent at
different railroad stations, his last position being ac
Yonges Island. He eng^ed in general trucking,
especially potatoes and cabbage growing and was
one of the biggest potato growers until some six
years ago. He had invested in rural property, and
in 1900 located on his present plantation. He owns
three farms and conducts in addition to them two
others, so that he has under his active supervision
about 1,000 acres of land and has at times employed
as many as 300 people. In addition to these re-
sponsibilities Mr. Rumph conducts a mercantile es-
tablishment and does a business of about $60,000 an-
nually, and has opened another store near Meggett,
which will increase the business $35,ooo or $40,000
per year. In the past he was extensively engaged in
the cotton business, putting out from 1,200 to 2,000
bales annually. In every undertaking Mr. Rumph
displays signal business ability and each year's re-
turns proves that he is increasing his production and
keeping up his quality.
On January 18, 1893, Mr. Rumph was married to
Kate W. Boynton. They have no children. Mrs.
Rumph is a very pleasant lady, interested in the de-
velopment of the state, and a lover of flowers. She
delights in caring for the lawn, hedges and direct-
ing their care and beautification. During the great
World war she was very active in the work of the
Red Cross and was chairman of the Red Cross divi-
sion in her part of the county. She is still an earnest
worker in after war needs. Mr.. Rumph is a
Mason and also belongs to the Knights of Pythias.
He is a school trustee and has charge of the roads
in his section, to which he gives considerable atten-
tion and keeps them good. He has never taken a
very active part in politics. He is a director in the
South Carolina Produce Association, vice president
and director in the Hollywood Manufacturing Co.,
which manufactures barrels and packages and is do-
ing an extensive business, and is vice president of
the South Carolina Cotton Growers' Association.
During the great war Mr. Rumph was a member of
the County Exemption Board and gave to its duties
a faithful and conscientious service. In ever^ rela-
tion of life he measures up to the highest standards
of American citizenship, and his associates, whether
in business or social circles, hold him in high esteem,
for they recognize and appreciate his many excellent
characteristics.
In 1920 Mr. Rumph has sought to replace the
cotton which boll weevil has destroyed, and he has
turned his attention and investment to tobacco grow-
ing and curing. He has erected two barns and has
fourteen acres in tobacco.
He was led to make this experiment in 1920 in
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
tobacco growing because the boll weevil had de-
stroyed the cotton growing in his vicinity. He feels
that success in the venture will result in extensive
planting by the farmers while on the other hand a
failure will show at his expense just what can be
expected. Thus he is serving his community, hoping
to succeed, but willing to bear the expense of a
demonstration.
His home is one of the handsomest of the com-
munity in 191 7, and the foundation of which is over
one hundred years old, but it is now one of the most
modern in the county; beautiful hedges and flowers
surround it and are supervised by and imder the care
of Mrs. Rumph.
Jones Henky Columbus All, a pioneer of Allen-
dale, found his life work in that community as a
planter, extensive land owner and business man, and
has dispensed his means and influence for many years
in a spirit of constructive enterprise that has had
much to do with the development of this flourishing
little city in the southern part of the state.
Mr. All was born in what was then Barnwell
County near the great Saltcahachie Church Septem-
ber 29, 1853. His grandfather All was a. native of
Holland and settled in South Carolina at the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century. Adam All, the
father was also bom in' the same locality of Barn-
well County on August 24, 1812. While most of his
years were spent in the operation of his plantation,
he was extremely loyal to nis home state, and though
nearly fifty years of age when the war broke out
between the North and South he was not satisfied
to fight through the proxy of his four sons, but
i'oined the Home Guards and did what he could to
:eep the Yankees out of the land when Sherman's
invaders came through. After the war he was a
member of the "Red Shirt Brigade" and helped re-
construct the state for orderly white government.
He died at the age of seventy-two. His wife was
Elsie (Williams) All, a native of Barnwell County,
of English descent and of an old family of the
state. Four of their sons went all through the
struggle during the war between the states. George
All was in Fort Sumter four years, a sergeant of his
company. W. A. All was superintendent of the gov-
ernment repair shop at Charleston. Jack and Jim
All were in Captain Smart's Company of Cavalry on
the coast.
Jones Henry Columbus All was about eight years
old when the war broke out. Consequently the
period normally devoted to education was one of
confusion and poverty of resources, and he had only
the benefit of the interrupted schedule of country
schools. At the age of twenty-one in 1874 be began
his active career as a merchant at Allendale, and built
up and continued a successful business for fifteen
years. For the past thirty years his big interest has
been farming, now conducted on about 6,000 acres
of land he owns in Allendale and Barnwell coun-
ties. He has a well organized tenant system, with
a large investment in buildings and other equipment,
and for years has been one of the leading producers
of cotton, corn and peanuts.
Mr. All resides in Allendale, where he owns con-
siderable improved property, and was one of the
organizers of the old Allendale Bank. For three or
four years he served as a warden of the town and
afterwards was intendant or mayor for four years.
but whether in office or as a private citizen he has
neglected no opportunity to build up and promote the
best interests of the town and county. Mr. All is a
Mason and a member of the Baptist Church.
July 2, 1873, he married in Barnwell County Theo-
dore Gertrude Bowers, a native of that county. Her
father Capt. G. C. Bowers was a prominent planter
and of an old South Carolina family of Revolution-
ary stock and English descent. Eleven children were
bom to the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. All. One
daughter, Edith, died at the age of three, and a son,
Mclver, at the age of fourteen. There are nine
living children, all well established and equipped for
life with liberal educations: John E., a preacher in
the Seven Day Adventist Church in Columbia; Percy
H., whose career is sketched elsewhere; Gertrude,
wife of John W. Douglas, of Allendale; Harry W.,
a cotton buyer and farmer at Allendale; Blanche,
wife of H. G. Marsh, a warehouse keeper at Jack-
sonville, Florida: Bessie, twin sister of Blanche,
wife of M. M. Hogan, a real estate dealer at Jack-
sonville, Florida ; Mrs. Gladys Prelliman of Spartan-
burg; Fred H., a member of the class of 1021 at
Harvard University Law School ; and Sarah All, who
Saduated in 1920 from the Boston Conservatory of
usic. Mr. Adam All was a large slave owner and
after the close of the Civil wv kept about seventy-
five and took great care of them in every way.
Percy H. All. To the commercial and indus-
trial progress of Allendale, now county seat of the
rich and prosperous Allendale Coimty, Percy H.
All for a number of years has been one of the
chief contributors. He is an electrical engineer by
training and early profession, and has done much
to promote the cotton and other industries of Allen-
dale.
He was bom in 1880, near Allendale, in what
was then Barnwell County. His parents, J. H. C.
and Theodore Gertrude (Bowers) All, were also
natives of the same locality. Percy H. All attended
the Allendale schools and graduated as electrical
engineer from Clemson College in 1901. The first
two years after leaving college he engaged in stock
farming on the Savannah River. Then after some
associations with a cotton exporting corporation at
Savannah he returned to Allendale and engaged
in the cotton business for himself. Mr. All in 1914
established the All's Ginnery, one of the largest
gins in Allendale County. It has been in success-
ful operation and is one of the leading industries
of Allendale. More recently Mr. All extended his
initiative and enterprise to a new field. In January,
1920, he established a horse collar and pad fac-
tory, one of the few institutions of its kind in the
state, and ohe that will bring increased recognition
to Allendale as an industrial center.
Mr. All is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. On January i, 1917* he married Miss
Josephine Anthony, daughter of Rev. Bascom
Anthony, a prominent minister and member of the
South Georgia Conference of the . Methodist Epis-
copal Church, South. Mr. All had the misfortune
to lose his wife by death. She was a graduate of
Wesleyan College of Macon, Georgia. She was the
mother of four children: Percy H., Jr., Rasrmond
Anthony, James Bascom and Frank Ewbank.
Mr. All was an active member of the Georsria
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
17
Hussars, of Savannah, Georgia, and an associate
member of the Savannah Volunteer Guards.
Col. jyARCY Paul Duncan. A youthful soldier
during the last year of the war between the states,
for many years a successful planter, public official
of Union County, a former member of the State
Railroad Commission, president of the South Caro-
lina State Fair, these and other positions and
services have made Col. D'Arcy P. Duncan of
G>lmnbia one of the best known citizens of the
state.
He comes of a family in which high and scholarly
achievement is a tradition. He is a brother of the
late Bishoo William W. Duncan of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. Another brother was James Arm-
strong Duncan, also a Methodist minister but best
known sis president of Randolph-Macon Colle^ in
Virginia. Another brother was the late Maj. D.
R. Duncan of Spartanburg, an ex-Confederate of-
ficer, prominent as a lawyer and railway president
These sons were children of David and Alice
Amanda (Piedmont) Duncan. David Duncan was
bom in County Donegal, Ireland, in 1790, of Scotch
parents. He was a graduate of the University of
Edinburgh. He served four years in the British
Navy, and while on a British boat was with the
fleet at St. Petersburg when Napoleon and his army
read their fate in the flames of Moscow. David
Duncan came to America in 1817, and for nearly
twenty years was principal of the Norfolk Academy
in Virginia, and from 1835 to 1854 was professor
of Ancient Languages in Randolph-Macon College.
From 1854 to 1881, the 3rear of his death, he was
professor of Ancient Languages in Wofford College
at Spartanburg, going to that institution the year
it was founded. He died at the age of ninety-one.
His son William Wallace Duncan had attended
the first class of Wofford in 1854, after his grad-
uation filled many pulpits in the Methodist Church
and in 1875 was elected to the Chair of Philosophy
at Wofford and made financial agent for the college.
In 1886, at the General Conference at Richmond, he
was elected bishop, a high office he filled with dis-
tinction until his death on March 2, 1908. Bishoo
Duncan is remembered as one of the most gifted,
brilliant and scholarly men of the South.
Col. D'Arcjr P. Duncan was bom in Mecklenburg
G)unty, Virginia, in 1846, and was eight years old
when his parents moved to Spartanburg. In 1864
he was enrolled in The Citadel, the South Carolina
Military Academy at Charleston, and with the
Charleston Cadets of State Troops he entered the
Confederate Army of defense, serving on James
Island and vicinity.
In 181^ Colonel Duncan married Miss Carrie C.
Gist, daughter of former Governor W. H. Gist. After
his marriage he moved to a olantation in Union
County ten miles from the Town of Union on
Tyger River, near the Laurens County line. He
developed his plantation of 2,100 acres until it be-
came widely known for its successful management
and its great productiveness. Colonel Duncan was
always a pioneer in the introduction of progressive
agricultural methods. It was his prominence as a
planter that brought him election in 1881 as presi-
dent of the State Agricultural and Mechanical So-
ciety of South Carolina, the incorporation which has
had the management of the State Fair. During his
Vol. V— 1
term of office the annual fair at Columbia enjoyed
every degree of success and prosperity. Since leav-
ing the office of president he has remained as an
ex-o^cio member of the executive committee of the
society.
His first important service in public affairs was
rendered when he was elected in 1876 as a member
of the Board of County Commissioners of Union
County. That was just at the period of restored
white rule, and as a result of the carpet bag regime
the county was heavily burdened with debt. When
he left office in 1880 provision had been made for
the payment of every dollar of debt, and Colonel
Duncan was complimented by his fellow citizens in
bringing about such a desirable result In i^ he
was appointed by Governor Thomson to fill the un-
expired term of Governor Jeter as a member of the
Board of Railroad Commissiopers, and was con-
nected with that board continuously for twenty-
three years. He was a member until 1894, and then
for eleven years served as secretary of the board.
Colonel Duncan has been a resident of Columbia
since 1904. After severing his connections with the
Railroad Commission he represented some of the
local railwav companies until 1918, and is now en-
joying a well earned retirement, though his interests
and enthusiasm in all matters touching the welfare
of his state and community are as fresh as ever.
Colonel Duncan's first wife died in 1876, and her
three living children are Mrs. R. P. Harry, of Union,
Mrs. James R. Cogswell, of Darlington, and William
Gist Duncan, of Leesville. In 1881 Colonel Duncan
married Miss Kate Richardson, daughter of the late
Congressman John S. Richardson of Sumter. To this
marriage were born four children, Mrs. Harry Nel-
son Eden, Mrs. Leroy Reeves, Mrs. Ed Brennon,
Jr., and James A. Duncan. The son is a graduate
with the class of 1917 from the University of Soutii
Carolina and is now assistant tutor of physics in
Harvard University.
George Benedict Cromer. An unusually busy and
fruitful career has been that of George Benedict
Cromer, who qualified for practice as a lawyer more
than thirty-five years ago, served more than eight
years as president of Newberry College, his alma
mater, was four times mayor of Newberry, and has
long been one of the prominent laymen of the
Lutheran Church.
Mr. Cromer was born in Newberry County, Oc-
tober 3, 1857, son of Thomas H. Cromer, a farm-
er and merchant. Mr. Cromer spent his boyhood
days in the country, was farm reared, and had the
simple advantages of the country schools, supple-
mented by the- private school of Thomas H. Duckett.
He was thus qualified for entrance to Newberry
College, where he graduated A. B. in 1877 and
A. M. in 1879. From 1877 to 1881 he was an in-
structor in Newberry College, and while teach-
ing was studying law and was admitted to prac-
tice in December, 1881. From that date until Janu-
ary, 1896, he practiced with growing prestige and
ability, and three times served as mayor of New-
berry, being first elected in 1886 and serving until
1890. Mr. Cromer became president of Newberry
College in 1896, and held that office for 8j4 years,
until 1904. That was a period of great prosperity
for his alma mater. Retiring from this office he
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
was elected in 1905 as mayor of Newberry. He is
still active in his law practice.
Mr. Cromer was honored in 1901 with the degree
LL. D. by Wittenberg College in Ohio and Muhlen-
berg College in Pennsylvania. He is a member of
the American Academy of Political and Social
Science and the National Economic League. He is
also president of the trustees of Newberry College.
October 11, 1883, he married Miss Carolyn J.
Motte, who died in 1888, On November 27, 1890,
he married Harriet S. Bittle. He has two children,
Carolyn and Beale H.
Joel Smith Bailey, of Greenwood, is a son of
Joel S. and Clara (Tarrant) Bailey. His father's
rank is well known as a nnancier and merchant,
having been head of one of the largest mercan-
tile firms in Northern South Carolina during the
last two decades of the last century.
Joel Smith Bailey for fifteen years has prose-
cuted many and varied and important interests at
Greenwood. He was born in that city August 12,
1883, was educated in public schools, and gradu-
ated from Davidson College in North Carolina in
1903. As a newspaper man he is secretary, treas-
urer and business manager of the Index-Journal.
He is a director of the National Loan and Ex-
change Bank of Greenwood, and is president and
treasurer of the Oregon Hotel Company, which
built and owns the splendid fireproof five-story hotel
at Greenwood. He is also president of the Citi-
zens Trust Company and is one of the three mem-
bers of the Water and Light Commission of Green-
wood.
Mr. Bailey from college days has been deeply
interested in athletic sports of all kinds. On May
7, 1914, he married Sarah Caldwell Jamison, of
Greenwood. They have one daughter, Margaret
Wallace.
Claudius C. Featherstone is one of the ablest
members of the South Carolina bar, having prac-
ticed more than thirty years, and in that time has
been called on fifteen different occasions to serve
as special Judge of the Circuit Court.
Judge Featherstone, whose home is at Green-
wood, was born in Laurens County, December i,
1864, a son of J. C. Calhoun and Addie (Sullivan)
Featherstone. His father wa$ likewise a success-
ful lawyer before him. Qaudius C. Featherstone
was educated in the common schools, attending the
high school at Anderson, and had one year of ex-
perience in a printing office and also clerked in a
store. At the age of twenty he began studying
law in the office of his father, and was admitted
to the bar in December, 1885. For one year he
practiced at Anderson and for twenty years in
Laurens, and since 191 1 has been a resident of
Greenwood, where he became a member of the firm
McGhee & Featherstone.
Judge Featherstone has been a prominent leader
in the prohibition party in South Carolina for
many years. In 1898 he was a candidate on the
ticket of that party for governor, and was beaten
by only a small majority. In 1910 he was again
prohibition candidate for governor against Cole
Blease. Judge Featherstone is chairman of the
Board of Stewards of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, is a Mason and Shriner, and past chan-
cellor of the Knights of Pythias. On October i,
1893, he married Lura Lucretia Pitts, a daughter
of Rev. John D. Pitts, a prominent Baptist minis-
ter. To their marriage was born three children:
John Douglass, who graduated from the University
of Soutfi Carolina and was admitted to the bar in
1916, entered the army in 1917 and was a lieutenant
and afterwards a captain in the field artillery.
Lucia Sullivan, the second child, is a graduate of
Winthrop College and a teacher at Greenville.
Phoebe Laurens is still a student in Winthrop Col-
lege.
Capt. Francis Murray Mack is a member of
the former Mack family of Fort Mill, distinguished
by the scholarship and professional activities of sev-
eral of its members. Capt. F. M. Mack is a brother
of Dr. Edward Mack, long distinguished as a Pres-
byterian clergyman and theologian, and is also a
brother of the brilliant New York lawyer William
Mack.
The parents of these sons were Rev. Dr. Joseph
Bingham and Harriet Hudson (Banks) Mack. The
father was born in New York City of Irish ancestry
and came south when a youth. He espoused the
cause of the South in the war between the states,
and rose to the rank of captain in the Fifty-third
Tennessee Infantry. After the war he studied for
the Presbyterian ministry, and spent many years in
the upbuilding of that church in various states in
the South. For several years he served as financial
agent for the Presbyterian Theological Seminary at
Columbia, South Carolina, and in recognition of
that service and his high scholarship the institution
awarded him the Doctor of Divinity degjree. For
twenty years he was engaged in Evangelistic work
in Georgia and Alabama. He held a niunber of
prominent pastorates, including Charleston and Fort
Mill. He established his permanent home at Fort
Mill and died there.
His wife, still living, is a member of the promi-
nent Banks family of this state. Her brother was
Prof. Alexander Banks, one of South Carolina's
leading educators. He died in March, 1920.
William Mack, mentioned above, was bom in
Sumter County, South Carolina, October 24, 1865, is
a graduate of Davidson College, North Carolina,
received his law degree in the University of Mis-
souri, and was admitted to the bar in 1887. Since
1900 he has been secretary of the American Law
Book Publishing Company of New York, also editor
in chief of its publications, and from 1900 to 1912
was editor in chief of the Encyclopedia of Law
and Procedure and since 1914 of "Corpus Juris.'*
Dr. Edward Mack, D. D., was born at Charleston,
July 16, 1868, is a graduate of Columbia Theological
Seminary and of Princeton Theological Seminary
and has been a minister of the Presbjrterian Church
since 1889. He held pastorates at St. Louis, Norfolk,
Virginia, and other places until 1904. For eleven
years he was a professor in the Lane Theological
Seminary at Cincinnati, and has held a chair in
the Union Theological Seminary at Richmond, Vir-
ginia, since 1915. He is author of a number of
theological and other books and articles.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
19
Capt Francis Murray Mack is a junior by twenty
years to these distinguished brothers. He was born
at Fort Mill in York County in 1887, and was
reared in the beautiful Mack home at Fort Mill,
where he still lives. He attended public school at
Atlanta, spent two years in Davidson College, North
Carolina, and two years in Cornell University.
Before the World war and since leaving the army
he has been engaged in the management of the
Mack farm owned by his mother. This is a beauti-
ful and valuable plantation of 800 acres, and adjoins
the Town of Fort Mill on the South.
dptain Mack became a private in the Fort Mill
Light Infantry and had attained the rank of second
lieutenant when he was called to duty with that com-
pany on the Mexican border from July to December,
1916. The Fort Mill Company was Company G of
the First South Carolina Infantry. This organiza-
tion was mustered into the National Army April
12, 191 7. The first South Carolina with subsequent
additions became the One Hundred and Eighteenth
Regiment of the Thirtieth, Old Hickory, Division.
Concerning the brilliant record of this regiment
nothing need be said at this point. Captain Mack
joined the colors at Columbia, was at Camp Jackson,
and in September, 1917, went to Camp Sevier at
Greenville. He went overseas with the One Hundred
and Eighteenth in May, 191 8. In the meantime he
had spent two months of intensive drill in a ma-
chine gun course at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and was
made machine gun instructor in his regiment The
One Hundred and Eighteenth Regiment was one of
the units called upon for the heaviest service and
sustained some of the heaviest losses of any regi-
ment in France beginning with the events of July,
1918, and continuing to the signing of the armis-
tice. While in France Captain Mack was trans-
ferred from G Company to the Regimental Intelli-
gence Office of the One Hundred and Eighteenth,
and when Captain Pyles was killed he was pro-
moted to regimental operations ofiicer with the rank
of captain. After the armistice he was kept on duty
in France until the spring of 1919 and was then
sent home and received his honorable discharge in
July, 1919.
Captain Mack married Miss Elizabeth Nims, of
York County. Their two children are Francis Mur-
ray, Jr., and Frederick Nims Mack.
James Travis Medlock, deceased, for many years
was one of the leading bankers of Greenwood. He
was a veteran in banking experience, and filled prac-
tically every executive position in a bank. Mr.
Medlock was also widely known as one of the most
prominent Methodist laymen in the state.
He was bom in Laurens County, South Caro-
lina, August 18, 1856, son of James Travis and
Cornelia (Jones) Medlock. His father was both
a farmer and merchant. The son had a business
college education in addition to the advantages of
the common schools and for three years was a
teacher. With that exception his career has been
completely a commercial one. For ten years he
was in the mercantile business, four years in Laurens
County and six years in Greenwood. He began
lanking with the Bank of Greenwood, first as as-
sistant cashier for six years and then six years
as cashier. Besides his knowledge of banking he
had been gaining steadily the confidence of his
associates and his reputation for financial manage-
ment. On leaving the Bank of Greenwood he or-
ganized the Loan and Exchange Bank, and served
as its cashier and later as its president. This in-
stitution was consolidated with the First National
"Bank, becoming the National Loan and Exchange
Bank, and Mr. Medlock was afterward president
of the consolidated institution. He was also presi-
dent of the Citizens Trust Company. He owned
the handsome bank and office building, 40x120 feet,
a six-story concrete and brick face fire-proof struc-
ture that is a substantial evidence of Greenwood's
importance as a growing business center. Mr. Med-
lock was also active vice president of the Durst-
Andrews Company, wholesale ^ocers.
December 15, 1892, he married Miss Kate Bul-
lock, of Greenwood County. They had a family
of seven children : Lucile, a teacher ; Robert Travis,
who during the World war was a sergeant in the
Fifty-third Regiment and saw active service with
the Expeditionary Forces in France; Bertha Nell,
a teacher; James Rogers, a student in Woflford
College; Joseph Preston, Melvin Kelly and Mary,
all at home.
While Mr. Medlock was daily busy with his af-
fairs in Greenwood he resided on a farm and
country estate two miles out of town. He was
trustee and secretary and treasurer of the Green-
wood City School Board. Mr. Medlock was a
steward and treasurer of the First Methodist Epis-
copal Church of Greenwood, secretary and treasurer
of the Sunday school, and for four years was a
member of the General Board of Missions of the
church and was very prominent in the laymen's
missionary movement.
James Benette Hunter is junior member of the
law firm of Hunt, Hunt & Hunter, which for years
has enjoyed exceptional' standing and has repre-
sented some of the best abilities in the legal pro-
fession in the state. Mr. Hunter has also been
active while building up his professional interests
in local affairs at Newberry.
He was bom in Newberry County, July 18, 1872,
son of Robert T. C. and Rebecca J. (Boozer) Hun-
ter. His father was a very progressive factor in
the agricultural community of Newberry County.
A man of natural mechanical ability, he for many
years operated a threshing outfit and a cotton gin
and introduced the first steam threshing machine
into Newberry County.
James Benette Hunter grew up on his father's
farm, had good school advantages, and in 1896
p-aduated from Newberry College. After read-
ing law privately he was admitted to the bar in
1897. In 1896-97 he taught school. He practiced
law for three years at Saluda, and then came to
Newberry and has since been a member of the firm
Hunt, Hunt & Hunter. While at Saluda he served
as intendant of the town for nearly two years, hav-
ing resigned on moving to Newberrv.
He is a prominent lasrman of the Lutheran
Church, is a deacon in his home church and treas-
urer of its benevolent fund. He is also one of the
trustees of Newberry College, and treasurer of one
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
of the endowment funds of the college. Mr. Hun-
ter is a Mason. During the war he served as chief
clerk for the local exemption board, and gave
practically all his time to those duties to the neg-
lect of his professional duties.
August 27, 1902, he married Minnie McLarnon,
of Chester, South Carolina.
Thomas Kennerly Johnstone was graduated
from Newberry College, in 1904, and for the past
fifteen years has been actively identified with the
commercial affairs of Newberry.
He was born June 13, 1884, a son of Alan and
Lilla K. (Kennerly) Johnstone. While his father
wzs a farmer, he was also active in politics and
served at one time as a member of the State Senate.
Thomas K. Johnstone grew up at his father's home
and prepared for Newberry College in the public
sdiools. After leaving college he entered the serv-
ice of the National Bank of Newberry as collec-
tion clerk, and since 1916 has been cashier of that
institution. He has served as clerk of the Sink-
ing Fund Commission of South Carolina, and dur-
ing 1918-19 was an alderman of Newberry. Mr.
Johnstone is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
November 24, 1909, he married Miss Jeanne Pel-
ham of Newberry. Their five children are Alan
McCrary, Brantly Leavel, Thomas K., Jr., Lilla K.
and Ellerbe Pelham.
CoL. Thomas B. Spratt, of the historic Spratt
family of Fort Mill, was lieutenant colonel of the
One Hundred and Eighteenth Infantry in the Thir-
tieth Division and was in active command of his
regiment during its glorious participation in the
campaign which broke the Hindenburg line during
October, 1918. He is one of the distinguished
military figures in his native state, and his individual
career adds luster to the military annals of the
family.
This is one of the oldest families in the northern
section of South Carolina, and one inseparably as-
sociated with the state's history. The Spratt family
have owned and lived continuously upon the Spratt
estate at Fort Mill in York County, since 1760, a
period of 160 years, this land having been given
to Kanawha (Thomas Spratt) by the Catawba In-
dians when he settled amon^ them.
The founder of the name m South Carolina was
Thomas Spratt, great-grandfather of Colonel Spratt.
He was born in County Down, Ireland, of Scotch
parentage, and when a child he came with his
parents to America in 1730. His father and two
brothers settled at Cliester, Pennsylvania. Thomas
Spratt about 1758 came southward with his wife
and small children and in the southern part of
North Carolina crossed the Yadkin River and lo-
cated on the site of the present City of Charlotte
in Mecklenburg County. A son born there is cred-
ited with having been the first white child bom west
of the Yadkin. Historians have also recorded the
fact that this was the first white family to cross
the Yadkin. The first court of Mecklenburg County
was held in the cabin that was erected by Thomas
Spratt He did not long remain there, however, and
in 1876 removed to the site of the present Town
of Fort Mill in York County, South Carolina, about
seventeen miles south of Charlotte. The land was
then owned by the Catawba tribe of Indians, and
that region was inhabited solely by them. Thomas
Spratt was the first permanent white settler among
them. The Indians found in him a leader and
adviser in their domestic and tribal affairs and also
a valuable counselor in their wars. Thomas Spratt
led the Catawbas to victory against another tribe
on the Kanawha River in what is now West Vir-
ginia. After this campaign the Catawbas bestowed
upon him the name "Kanawha," by which he is
known in history. Largely through the wise and
kind leadership of Kanawha Spratt the Catawbas
remained faithful and loyal to him and to his de-
scendants, aiding the white people in all their wars
beginning with the Revolution and down to the
period of the war between the states. Some of the
Catawbas were heroes in these wars, a fact perma-
nently testified to by a monument erected to their
memory at Fort Mill by John McKee Spratt and
Samuel Elliott White. Kanawha Spratt died in
1807. The land ^ven to him by the (Catawba
Indians at Fort Mill was later granted to him by
King George and has never passed out of the family
name. Thomas Spratt served as a lieutenant in the
Revolutionary war.
Col. Thomas B. Spratt, who was bom at Fort
Mill in 1878, is a son of John McKee and Susan
(Massey) Spratt, the latter still living. John Mc-
Kee Spratt, who died in 1909, was a son of Thomas
D. Spratt and a grandson of James Spratt, who
was one of the sons of Kanawa Spratt During his
life of sixty years he was actively and successfully
engaged in farming, banking and manufacturing, at
Fort Mill, spending his entire life on the old
family homestead. Thomas D. Spratt was a man
of thorough education. Though he spent three
years in the South Carolina College at Columbia and
studied medicine in the Medical College of South
Carolina at Charleston, he never practiced that pro-
fession. He studied law at Yorkville and was ad-
mitted to the bar in 183 1. His career as a lawyer
was also brief. In 1834 he retumed to the Spratt
place at Fort Mill and busied his years with planting.
He died in 1875. His wife was Margaret McKee.
Thomas B. Spratt acquired his education in the
South Carolina military school. The Citadel, at
Charleston, which has turned out hundreds of men
who have achieved fame in war and in civil af-
fairs. After returning home he joined the National
Guard of South Carolina. He commanded the Sec-
ond Battalion, First South Carolina Infantry, dur-
ing the troubles on the Mexican border. He was on
the border during 1916, and when he returned to
civil life in 1919 he had been on active duty as a
military man for nearly three years. Soon after
his return from the South he volunteered in tfie
National Army. He went to France as lieutenant
colonel of the One Hundred and Eighteenth In-
fantry in the Thirtieth Division. The division was
largely made up of South (Carolina troops and its
history is merely a part of the state's military record.
He was lieutenant colonel in command of the One
Hundred and Eighteenth Infantry, during the great
offensive from October 5th to October 20th, and in
the absence of the colonel of the regiment he made
the plans and gave the command which preceded
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
21
the advance and capture of Brancourt, one of the
most important objectives attained by the American
army in the offensive of the month of October when
the Hxndenburg line was broken.
G>lonel Spratt returned home in December, 1918,
having been recommended for promotion, for the
purpose of taking command of one of the new
regiments being formed. After the armistice he
resumed his business duties as president of the First
National Bank of Fort Mill, and farming the old
homestead.
The vice president and cashier of thb bank is
his brother, Dr. J. Lee Spratt, who is a graduate
in dentistry of the University of Maryland at Balti-
more. For several years he has not practiced his
profession, having given much of his time to the
opratt Bank and to his farming operations. Doctor
Spratt as a civilian rendered valuable service to
the Government during the war, serving on Local
Exemption Board No. i for York County and be-
ing chairman of all the Liberty '^ Loan drives for
Fort Mill and vicini^. He married Miss Emma
Ardrey, daughter of Capt W. E. Ardrey of Meck-
lenburg County, North Carolina.
Col. T. B. Spratt married Miss Eleanor Mason
Harris. They have three children, named John
McKee, Thomas and Eleanor Spratt.
CALHOUN Allen Mays, a lawyer whose talents
have brought him wide recognition in South Caro-
lina, has faNcen in practice at Greenwood a number
of years, and resumed his work there after his dis-
charge from the army in the winter of 1918-19.
Mr. Mays was born in Edgefield, South Carolina,
November 14, 1884, a son of Sampson Butler and
Ella (Calhoun) Mays. His father is a farmer
and the son made acquaintance with country life
and its responsibilities when a youth. He attended
the public schools, also the South Carolina Co-
educational Institute at Edgefield, where he com-
pleted his work in 1902, and then for one year was
a teacher. In 1906 he completed a course in Charles-
ton College, and then taught in Georgia, spending
some time at Elberton and at Waycross. In 1909
he entered the University of Michigan Law Depart-
ment, and was admitted to the bar in December,
1910. Mr. Mays has made his home and has had
his professional headquarters at Greenwood since
September, 191 1. He is associated with Henry C.
Tillman in the firm of Tillman & Mays. In 1915
he was appointed assistant United States attorney
for the Western District of South Carolina. He
resigned this office in 1918 to go into the army at
the Field Artillery Officers Training School at
C^p Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky. He received
his honorable discharge November 27, 1918, and
then returned to Greenwood to resum^the threads
of private life and his profession. He is a Mason
and is affiliated with the Alpha Tau Omega college
fraternity at Charleston.
Chables Edward Summer is president of the
Summer Brothers Company, Incorporated, of New-
berry, a large and important concern operating on
a capital of $100,000. It is an incorporation for
general business purposes, doin^ a large mercantile
btisiness, and in addition to this they operate 2,700
acres of plantation. This is one of the notable
agricultursd undertakings in South Carolina. In
the busy seasons sixty-five plows are at work in
the fields, and the average annual product from the
cotton plantings is 700 bails.
Charles Edward Summer also has during the past
thirty years been identified with many other impor-
tant commercial affairs at Newberry. He was born
in Lexington Cotmty, November 18, 1858, son of
George W. and Martha D. Summers. The Sum-
mers family settled in the Dutch Fork of Lexing-
ton County neiarly a century and a half ago.
George W. Summer was a farmer, and while a
Confederate soldier died in a Virginia hospital,
July 13, 1862. Charles Edward Summer grew up
on the home farm and was indebted to his mother
for much of his education and the influences which
shaped his life. He was trained to farm work and
has always had some interests in agriculture. Owing
to the limited circumstances of the family he never
acquired a college education. He began farming
for himself in Lexington County, in 1877^ and in
1888 transferred his field of operation to Newberry,
where he began merchandising on a' small scale.
Since then besides the large enterprise noted above
he has been identified with the Mollohon Manu-
facturing Company, the Newberry Warehouse
Company, the Standard Warehouse Company, and
the Newberry Land and Security Company, serv-
ing as an executive officer in these and other local
enterprises. He also owns large stocks and leases
in oil lands in Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma, is also
identified with and owns large stocks in fertilizer
plants, of which he is an officer. Mr. Summer is
a democrat and is affiliated with the Lutheran
Church.
January i, 1877, he married Leonora Sease, who
died in 1884, the mother of three children. On
January 2, 1886, he married Mary Jane Sease, sis-
ter of his first wife. To this marriage were born
six children. Mr. Summer served two terms as
an alderman at Newberry and in 1901 began a long
service as commissioner of public works, which
position he still holds.
William Kimbrough Charles established the
first law office in what is now McCormick County,
and was associated with Hon. B. E. Nicholson ot
the Edgefield bar, who was representing the legal
interests of many individuals and firms in the Town
of McCormick and surrounding country at the
thne the new county was organized in 1916. Mr.
Charles' progress in his profession has been steadily
upward since that date.
Mr. Charles was bom at Timmonsville in Flor-
ence County, April 2, 1892, a son of Kimbrough
DuBose and Elizabeth (Keith) Charles. The
Charles family was originally from Darlington
County.
William K. Charles was educated in the Uni-
versity of South Carolina, ^aduating from the law
department in 1915 and being admitted to the bar
the same year. While in Columbia he served as
secretary of the committee on agriculture and sec-
retary of the committee on banking and insurance
of the State Legislature. For nearly a vear after
completing his course in the tmiversity he was in
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Washington, an employe of the Department of
Justice and also a student of law at Georgetown
University. He then returned home and in 1916
located at McCormick. McCormick, the town as
well as the county, has enjoyed a rapid growth
and has splendid prospects as the center of a won-
derfully rich agricultural and industrial district.
Mr. Charles married Miss Carrie Lou Able, of
Leesville, South Carolina. They have a daughter
Doris Virginia.
Thomas B. Madden. A happy instance of the rule
of special fitness governing political appointments
was afforded when Thomas B. Madden received his
official commission as postmaster of Columbia on
January 21, 1920. If it were not for his compara-
tive youth it might appropriately be said that Mr.
Madden has grown old in the service of the postal
department of the Government. He is at least a
veteran, and his present office is an appropriate
reward of a continuously efficient service of more
than twenty years.
Mr. Madden was born at Winnsboro, son of Dr.
Thomas B. and Margaret S. (Brice) Madden. The
Maddens came to South Carolina from t^ north
of Ireland. The grandfather, Dr. Campbell Madden,
of Winnsboro, was not only a physician but also
a minister of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian
Church. Dr. Thomas B. Madden spent his active
life as a practicing physician in Fairfield County.
The son was educated in the Mount Zion Academy
at Winnsboro, and from there in 1897 he entered
the railway mail department of the Government.
He also worked in the mail transfer offices in
Columbia and Florence and on the Charleston and
Augusta division, and in 1904 was assigned to the
Augusta postoffice, where during the next six or seven
years he had experience in practically every depart-
ment. Mr. Madden came to Columbia in 191 1, was
in the general delivery department, was promoted
to assistant superintendent of mails in 191 3 and in
1915 was appointed assistant postmaster by Post-
master Huggins. He had charge of a large part
of the work of the local postoffice during the admin-
istration of the late W. H. Coleman, who died in
February, 1919. Following the death of his pre-
decessor he served as acting postmaster, and on
January 21, 1920, was appointed by President Wil-
son postmaster of the Columbia office.
Mr. Madden is a member of the Associate Re-
formed Presbjrterian Church and a Mason. He
married Miss Willie Brunson, of Dillon, and their
three children are Martha, Thomas B. and Addie.
John Thomas Fooshe is proprietor of the lead-
ing furniture and house furnishing business of the
Town of McCormick, county seat of McCormick
County. Mr. Fooshe has been in business at Mc-
Cormick for a number of years, and the esteem
accorded him as an enterprising and successful
merchant is heightened by the influence he is known
to have exercised in behalf of the establishment of
the County of McCormick,
Agitation was started to carve a new county from
old Abbeville, Edgefield and Greenwood as long
ago as 189s, but support of the movement waned,
and it was not revived until Mr. Fooshe with oth-
ers became the active leaders in 1913 and 1914.
During the next two years the agitation was car-
ried on with spirit and vigor both in the communi-
ties effected and before 3ie State Legislature, re-
sulting in the passage of the act and the establish-
ment of the new county April 12, 19 16, with the
Town of McCormick as county seat.
John Thomas Fooshe was bom at Ninety-Six in
Abbeville County, now Greenwood County, South
Carolina, October 21, 1873, a son of T. K. and Sal-
lie (Clem) Fooshe. The family is of French origin
and the nrst of the name in South Carolina came
from France and located near Ninety- Six about
1700. Mr. Fooshe's grandfather was C. W. Fooshe,
bom about 1820, and some of his descendants now ^
live in the old home which was built fully 100
years ago by his father. His youngest son, R. L.
Fooshe, lives on this place at this writing.
John Thomas Fooshe grew up on the plantation
in Abbeville, now Greenwood County. On January
7, 1907, he removed to the Town of McCormick
and established a furniture business under the name
Fooshe & Strom. After ten months he became sole
proprietor and continued the business until the spring
of 1910, when the store and most of the business
part of the town was destroyed by fire. For about
six months he was in business at Lancaster, still
retaining his business at McCormicl^ and aside from
that interval has been contmuously identified with
McCormick for over fourteen years. He is proprie-
tor of the oldest and the first exclusive fumiture
and house fumishing store in McCormick and in
recent years has kept his establishment growing with
adequate service to fulfill the new needs and de-
mands of the rapidly developing country around
McCormick.
Mr. Fooshe married Miss Hetie Dora Ouzts, of
Edgefield County, the daughter of J. Ouzts of
Greenwood, South Carolina. They have one
adopted daughter, Nellie Norris Fooshe, the daugh-
ter of the late J. B. Norris, who died February 29,
1914- Her mother, Emma (Wilson) Norris, died
March 3, 1914.
Robert S. Galloway was endowed with good
business talents and has used those talents during
a long and active career largely to promote and han-
dle the several business organizations of the Asso-
ciate Reformed Presbyterian Church centered at
Due West. Mr. Galloway is well known as a pub-
lisher and editor of church publications, and was
the man chiefly responsible among the local citizens
of Due West in giving that historic college com-
munity direct connection with the outside world by
means of a railroad.
Mr. Galloway was bom at Newberry, South Caro-
lina, in 1854 a son of Rev. Jonathan and Martha
(Spear) Galloway. His patemal grandparents
were natives of Scotland. Rev. Jonathan Galloway
was born in York County, South Carolina, and is
well remembered as a prominent minister and edu-
cator of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian
Church. For many years he lived at Newberry but
in 1859 moved to Due West, the seat of Erskine
College. He was one of the three men who origi-
nally conceived the plan of the Due West Female
College, and when it was opened in i860 as an in-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
23
sthution for the higher education of women he be-
came Professor of Latin and Greek. He had been
an active minister at Newberry for twenty years.
The mother of Robert S. Galloway was born at
Lowndesville in Abbeville Cotmty.
Robert S. Galloway ^aduated from Erskine Col-
lege in 1874. For a time he was a merchant and
later organized a company and bought the Asso-
ciate Reformed Presb3rterian, the official organ of
the Synod of the church and published at Due West.
Mr. Galloway for many years has been business
manager of this publication and is assistant edi-
tor. Published weekly, the paper circulates to the
majority of the homes of the Associate Reformed
Presbyterian people in this S)rnod, and through Mr.
Galloway's able management its business adminis-
tration has been conducted on a most substantial
basis. He is also publisher of the Senior Quarterly
and Junior Quarterly, the Sunday school publica-
tions of the Synod.
Mr. Galloway and his associates among Due West
citizens financed and built the Due West Railroad
from Donalds to Due West, connecting with the
Southern Railway at the former point. The first
train was run over the line December 24, 1907. Mr.
Galloway is president and treasurer of the railroad
and its active manager. He is also a member of
the board of trustees of both Erskine College and
the Woman's College at Due West.
Mr. Galloway married Mary Eleanor Stone of
Louisville, JeflFerson County, Georgia, daughter of
James Madison and Mary (Lawson) Stone. Mrs.
Galloway is active assistant in the management of
the "Associate Reformed Presbyterian." Their chil-
dren, seven in number, were all liberally educated
in the Due West colleges and were well trained
for lives of usefulness. They are: Jennie, wife of
H. D. Kirkpatrick; Mary, wife of J. B. McCutcheon;
Helen, wife of E. W. Neal ; Lena, who married J. B.
Mosely; Robert, Virginia and Kathryn.
N. W. Hardin is the present mayor, a leading
lawyer and for thirty years a source of much- of
the enterprise which has stimulated the interesting
and historic community of Blacksburg.
Blacksburg is the home of the Hardins, one of
the notable families of 5outh Carolina. Blacksburg
was originally in York County, and upon the crea-
tion of Cherokee County in 1897 it was part of the
territory used in the creation of that new county
division. In and around Blacksburg many promi-
nent families and notable men have lived, not least
among them the Hardins. Mr. Hardin's grandfa-
ther was Abraham Hardin, who represented Scotch-
Irish ancestry. He was a large land and slave
owner before the war, for nearly twenty years sat
in the General Assembly, was a surveyor, magistrate,
deacon in the Baptist Church, and in his generation
exercised a great and splendid influence in his com-
munity.
N. W. Hardin was bom near Blacksburg in 1857,
a son of Ira and Elizabeth (Hamilton) Hardin.
His father, the late Ira Hardin, was one of the
founders of the town of Blacksburg, whose his-
tory dates from 1871. The A. & C. Air Line Rail-
road, now a part of the Southern system, was then
being built. Ira Hardin was the means of provid-
ing a depot for the company. One of the chief ob-
jects of his interest and enthusiasm was education.
He caused to be erected the Blacksburg High School
Building, the first graded school in that part of the
state. He bore over half the expense of establish-
ing the high school. He was also instrumental in
founding the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
the first church in Blacksburg. After a life of great
usefulness Ira Hardin died in 1917.
While N. W. Hardin has always lived at Blacks-
burg and has played a role of influence and use-
fulness in that community, his brothers have elected
larger cities in which to make their careers. He
has three brothers at Atlanta, Georgia, all men of
prominence in the professions. One of them, Dr.
S. L. Hardin, is one of the leading surgeons of the
South.
Perhaps the most notable of the Hardin brothers
is Abraham Tracy Hardin, who is many years
younger than the Blacksburg mayor. His career is
the record of a remarkable rise of a South Caro-
lina boy to be one of America's foremost railroad
officials. Born at Blacksburg in 1880, at the age
of fifteen he had learned telegraphy and shorthand,
and was an expert railroad telegrapher, his talents
attracting the attention of Mr. E. Berkley, superin-
tendent of the Charlotte & Atlanta Air Line, now
a part of the Southern Railroad. Mr. Berkley took
young Hardin into his office as private clerk. While
thus employed he earned money to guarantee his
tuition in the University of South Carolina, where
he graduated with the first honors of his class in
1903. In university he specialized in higher mathe-
matics and engineering. His record since leaving
university has justified all the confidence enter-
tained of his budding abilities. He became private
secretary to Mr. R. A. Dodson, general roadmaster
of the Southern Railway at Washington. He ac-
cepted the many opportunities in that work to
acquire the knowledge of an expert in scientific
railroading. After two and a half years he went
to the New York Central as assistant roadmaster,
was promoted to division roadmaster, then division
engineer, and from there going into the office of
the chief engineer of the system was soon made
engineer of maintenance of way. Later he was
made assistant to the general manager, became
general manager and finally senior vice president
of the New York Central System. When the rail-
roads were put under Federal jurisdiction he was
appointed Federal manager for all the lines of |
the New York Central or Vanderbilt system.
N. W. Hardin attended high school at Blacks-
burg, studied law under the late William C. Black
and was admitted to the bar in 1889. For thirty
years he has practiced his profession in Blacks-
burg, and in addition has also looked after a grow-
ing and extensive interest as a farmer. By suc-
cessive elections he has served as mayor of Blacks-
burg since 1912 and is probably the most popular
official that community has ever had. He was
elected and served in the Lower House of the Gen-
eral Assembly in 1888 and was again elected in
1 914, serving in two regular and two extra sessions
of that body.
Mr. Hardin married Miss Mattie A. Black, a
daughter of William G. Black. Their six children
are Mrs. Willie Davies, S. L. Hardin, James A.
Hardin, Kathleen, Louis and Roland Hardin.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Maj. Lindsay C. McFadden was one of the
"seniors" among South Carolina officers in the great
war in France. He was about fortv years of age,
but in addition to his years he had the advantage
of mature business and army experience behind
him, all constituting a great advantage as a leader
among the men of the One Hundred and Eighteenth
Infantry, with which he served as acting commander
of the Second Battalion.
Major McFadden has been a prominent merchant
at Rock Hill for a number of years. He was born
near Rodman in Chester Cotmty, son of James C.
and Mary R. (Neely) McFadden. His parents
still live on their plantation near Rodman. Major
McFadden had a good high school education and has
been a resident of Rock Hill since 1904. His busi-
ness career and his residence at Rock Hill have
been contemporaneous, though for nearly three
years he had to neglect and absent himself from
business duties on account of his military service.
Major McFadden is vice president of the Diehl-
Moore Shoe Company of Kock Hill.
A number of years ago he entered the State Na-
tional Guard or Militia, and lor about twenty years
was captain of the Catawba Rifles of Rock Hill. He
held that office when the National Guard was
called upon for duty on the Mexican border in the
summer of 1916. He was called out as captain
of the Catawba Rifles in Company H of the First
■ South Carolina Rifles on Jtme la 1916, and was on
duty during the Mexican imbroglio until December
6th of the same year. April 12, 1917, a few days
after the declaration of war against Germany, his
company was called into the army and became a
part of the One Hundred and Eighteenth Infantry,
Thirtieth Division. He retained his rank of cap-
tain under the new organization, and was taken into
Federal service without further preliminary train-
ing. The One Hundred and Eighteenth Infantry
trained at Camp Sevier, Greenville, and Company
H embarked at New York May 11, 1918, reaching
Liverpool May 23d, and soon afterward was on the
soil of France. Captain McFadden was practically
in command of the Second Battalion throughout the
summer and fall of 191 8. The regiment and bat-
talion saw its first duty as part of the British
sector around Ypres, but had the climax of its duty
in the period between September 25d and October
20, 1918, when the battalion took its place in the
* Hindenburg line just north of Bellicourt. The
battalion took its place at this point on September
29th, and during the next day or so the battalion
suffered 11 1 casualties. On the 5th of October
the battalion took up its position at Mont Brehain,
and in following days it was an important unit in
the forward movements of the Thirtieth Division,
including the historic points of Brancourt and Bre-
hain. It was in repeated advances until the 14th
of October, by which time the battalion had sus-
tained total casualties of over 400, including ei^ht
officers. Captain McFadden at that time commandmg
the battalion. The battalion resumed its place in
front line operations the 15th of October, and from
October 5th, when the battalion went into position
in front of Mont Brehain until relieved on the 20th,
the Second Battalion participated in an advance of
over twenty kilometers and with the exception of
three days was constantly in action. Captain Mc-
Fadden was one of the hve officers of the Second
Battalion who continued through the entire action.
In the meantime, on October 17th, he had received
his commission as major.
The One Hundred and Eighteenth Regiment was
cited and commended for unusual performance of
duty by Gen. L. D. Tyson, the brigade commander,
who in an address said, in addition, referring par-
ticularly to the Second Battalion, 'that this bat-
talion did more effective fighting than any other
battalion in the 30th Division and more actual
front line work than any other battalion."
After the signing of the armistice and when the
Thirtieth Division was preparing for return to
the United States, Major McFadden was trans-
ferred to the Third Division and was on duty keep-
ing watch over the bridgeheads of the Rhine. He
sailed from Brest August 12, 1919, reaching New
York Auffust 20th, and was mustered out and dis-
charged September 12, 1919.
Major McFadden married Miss Maude Grantham,
of Florida.
William Walker Edwards as merchant, banker
and citizen has proved himself a most active spirit
in the affairs of the flourishing and rapidly grow-
ing Town of Due West, long the seat of Erskine
College and in later years developing as a com-
mercial center for a splendid agricultural district.
Mr. Edwards was born near Rock Hill in York
County in 187 1, but has spent all his life since
early mfancy in Due West His parents. Dr. E. H.
and Harriett Elizabeth (Roddy) Edwards, natives
of York County, moved to Due West in 1873. Wil-
liam Walker Edwards attended Erskine College and
as a youth entered a business career. For a number
of years he has been the leading merchant of the
old college town, and is proprietor of two stores,
one is a general dry goods and wpman's store,
while the other, in a separate building across the
street, erected in 1919, handles a complete stock of
men's clothing and furnishing goods.
Mr. Edwards was cashier of the Farmers and
Merchants Bank of Due West until 1920, when he
resigned. He is one of the liberal members of the
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. He
married Miss Isabel Hamilton Miller, daughter of
the late Col. McDuffie Miller of Abbeville, now
Greenwood, County. Their four children are Mar-
garet Virginia, William Walker, Jr., Harriet Eliza-
beth and Belle Miller.
Thomas Moore Ross was one of the first attor-
neys to locate in the new county seat of McCormick
County. Highly educated, a young man of influ-
ential social connections, he has made rapid prog-
ress in achieving secure places in his profession and
aH around good citizenship.
He was born in Chester County, South Carolina,
in 1891, son of Maj. H. M. and Lydia (Moore)
Ross. This is an old Scotch family early estab-
lished in Chester County. His father served with
the rank of major in the Confederate army. His
mother was a daughter of Dr. Thomas W. Moore
of Chester County. Thomas Moore Ross attended
school at Bascomville in Chester County and gradu-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
25
atcd from the University of South Carolina in
loii. He spent two years in the study of law at
Harvard University, and for one year was in the
office of Judge Woods of the United States Court.
After some months at Columbia he located at Mc-
Cormick in 1916. McCormick County was organ-
ized in that jrear, and the beginning of his profes-
sional career was coincident with the hostory of the
new county. ^^
Mr. Ross IS a member of the Methodist Church
and a Mason. He married Miss Anne McCown, of
Florence, South Carolina.
J. Jennings Dorn. Representative of a family
whose enterprise has done much to contribute to
the economic resources of the state, J. Jennings
Dorn is a business man of the Town of McCormick,
is a lumber manufacturer, cotton ginner, planter,
banker, and has widespread interests all over that
section of the state.
He was bom in 1885, at Dornsville, then in Edge-
field County. Dornsville, the ancestral home of the
Doms, is four miles east of the present City of
McCormick and in the new County of McCormick,
situated on Hardlabor Creek. J. Jennings Dorn is
a son of T. M. and Visie (Self) Dorn, both natives
of Edgeneld County. Both his parents died in
1906.
One of the early members of the family and the
one to originate an interesting chapter of economic
history was Billy Dorn, who about 1835 discovered
gold on his property near Dornsville and th6 present
Town of McCormick. He opened and operated a
mine, and the records of the United States Treas-
ury show that the Government pSiid him $900,000
for gold from his mine up to 1858. The mine was
again worked after the war, contributing another
substantial fortune to the Dorn family. Later a
party of New York men leased the property and
sunk the New York shaft, and finally the Dorn min-
ing property and many thousands of acres in that
section were bought by Cyrus H. McCormick, in-
ventor and manufacturer of harvesting machin-
ery. It was his name that is now commemorated
by the present Town and County of McCormick.
The county seat stands on land formerly owned by
him.
The late J. M. Dorn was one of the leading men
of affairs of Dornsville for many years, owning a
store, operating a saw and grist mill and cotton
gins, all these industries being run by water power.
J. Jennings Dorn has many of the outstanding
traits of his family, especially business sagacity
and ability. He and his brother M. Gary Dorn
comprise the firm of M. G. and J. J. Dorn. They
nave a large lumber manufacturing plant on the
hnc of the Charleston & Western Carolina Rail-
road at McCormick, and supply great quantities
of lumber, not only for the local demand but for
distant shipment Besides the plant at McCormick
they operate from twelve to fifteen additional saw
mills at different points in South Carolina. They
also own twelve cotton gins at McCormick and four
cotton gins at Dornsville, and their aggregate oper-
ations make them the largest individual ginners
m the state.
Both brothers are also extensively interested in
farming. J. J. Dorn has a fine farm at Dornsville,
a special feature of which is a fine herd of Here-
ford cattle. J. J. Dorn is chairman of the Mc-
Cormick County Commission for Permanent High-
ways, and through this commission is exerting the
full force of his influence for the building of good
roads. He is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner
and was one of the organizers and is vice president
of the Peoples Bank. He married Miss Nora Cuddy
and has one daughter, Mabel Dorn.
William C. Cobb. While for nearly fifteen years
William C. Cobb has been the manager and super-
intendent of the Ware Shoals Cotton Mills, he
achieved that important responsibility and a place
among the prominent cotton mill men of the state
pnly as a result of many years of faithful and effi-
cient toil, beginning in the very lowest ranks and
coming up ste^ by step on the basis of merit and
growing qualities of executive leadership.
Mr. Cobb is a native of South Carolina and was
born four miles south of Belton in Anderson County.
November 4, 1862, son of G. W. and Laura (West)
Cobb. When he was seven years of a^e the family
removed to Banks Coimty, Georgia, where he lived
on a farm, did work in the fields and attended coun-
try schools in limited sessions. At the age of
seventeen he' went to work as a track hand on the
Northeast Railroad between Athens and Lula, Geor-
gia. In a short time he was made foreman of the
section and work train, and continued as such until
he met an accidental injury and broke his leg.
After being able to walk he attended a school near
Pendleton under Mrs. Rebecca Douthit, and he
credits her with most of the real education he has
acquired, especially in mathematics and spelling.
Since October, 1882, when he engaged as a weaver
in the Piedmont mills, Mr. Cobb has been wholly
absorbed in the cotton mill industry. On July 4,
1883, he changed his job, goin^, as he says, "with
the generous, big-hearted Captain Smyth as a com-
mon weaver." October 14, 1884, he was promoted
from weaver to the duties described as "striker,"
and October 14, 1886, two years later, was pro-
moted to section hand, and after another two years
was made second hand in the weave room. Jfune j),
1890, he was promoted to overseer of weaving in
Mills Nos. I, 2 and 3, comprising over 1,500
looms. This responsibility he held for nearly
six years. January 16, 1896, he was transferred to
Mill No. 4 to start the operation of the first sheet-
ing looms the Draper Company ever put on the
market. March i, 1900, he became superintendent
at Belton and conducted the mill there until Sep-
tember 10, 1905, when he resigned, and on the i8th
of September entered upon his duties as manager
and superintendent of the Ware Shoals Mills. This
is one of the model plants in upper South Carolina,
and the mills, the mill village and the entire com-
munity comprise one of the "high lights" in the
industrial situation of the South. In the upbuild-
ing of the mills and in the creation of the com-
munity Mr. Cobb shared with Mr. J. F. MacEnroe %
and others the credit for this really distinctive
achievement.
Mr. Cobb is widely known among cotton mill
managers and is an exceedingly popular citizen in
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
his home community. He is a Knight Templar
Mason and Shriner. On September i6, 1883, after
he had been working in the cotton mills less than
a year, he married Miss Hattie Davis. On June 11,
1890, Mr. Cobb married for his present wife Miss
Ella P. Walker, of Greenville County. Mr. Cobb
is the father of nine children, the oldest, A. C.
Cobb, being the son of his first wife, while the
others are C. A., Lillian, Lila, Lora, Hazel, W. L.,
Mary and Frances.
James C. Dozier. While by no means common,
the name Dozier has been conspicuous in a number
of communities, especially in the southern states,
for many generations. There have been soldiers
of the name in various American wars, including
the war between the states. Of French origin, there
was an interesting appropriateness in the service
which James C. Dozier rendered his own country
and the country of his remote ancestors during the
World war. Both of Lieutenant Dozier's grand-
fathers were Confederate soldiers and several of
his uncles were killed in that war. James C. Dozier
was born at Marion, South Carolina,, in 1886, son of
John H. and Julia (Best) Dozier. His parents
have lived for several years at Rock Hill. His
mother is a daughter of Capt James Best of Marion.
James C. Dozier entered Wofford College in the
fall of 1915. At that time he was a member of the
South Carolina National Guard. In 1916 he went
with his company to the Mexican border. He was
one of the many gallant sons of Wofford College
whose names as soldiers in the World war make a
long roll of honor to that institution.
With the declaration of war against Germany
young Dozier accompanied his comrades in Company
H of the One Hundred and Eighteenth Infantry
to training camp at Camp Jackson and later at
Camp Sevier, and in the spring of 1918 went overseas
to France, where he was transferred to Company
G. By service and not through training school he
rose from private through the grade of sergeant to
second lieutenant and then to first lieutenant, and
was ranking first lieutenant of his company when
he reached the scene of action in France. The
brilliant record of the One Hundred and Eighteenth
Infantry, part of the Thirtieth Division, is a matter
of common knowledge to South Carolinians. To
no one man in that regiment did greater honors
fall than to Lieutenant Dozier. The culmination of
his brilliant performance of duty came early in
October, 1918. At the request of newspaper corre-
spondents Lieutenant Dozier has given some modest
account of the action in which his name became
memorable, but the service is best told in the formal
language of official citation given him by order of
General Pershing, as follows:
"Dozier, James C, ist Lieutenant, Co. G, Ii8th
Infantry.
"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above
and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy
near Montbrehain, France, 8 October, 1918.
'Tn command of two platoons, Lieutenant Dozier
was painfully wounded in the shoulder early in
the attack, but he continued to lead his men, dis-
playing the highest bravery and skill. When his
command was held up by heavy machine-gun fire,
he disposed his men in the best cover available and
with a soldier continued forward to attack a ma-
chine-gun nest Creeping up to the position in the
face of intense fire, he killed the entire crew with
hand grenades and his pistol and a little later cap-
tured a number of Germans who had taken refuge
in a dugout nearby."
Besides this official citation Lieutenant Dozier has
been the recipient of the highest military honors.
One of these, coveted by every American soldier,
is the Congressional medal of honor, which for
years has been a badge of distinction. This Con-
gressional medal of honor was bestowed by Gen-
eral Pershing at a review of the Jhirtieth Division
at Souligne January 21, 1919. Later Lieutenant
Dozier was presented with the British military cross
in Belgitun by Gen. Sir David Henderson of the
British Expeditionary Forces. Lieutenant Dozier
with his regiment arrived in America March 27, 1919.
and he received his honorable discharge on the 20th
of April. In the summer of 1919 he was awarded
the French Croix de Guerre by Ambassador Jus-
serand, making a trip to Washington for that pur-
pose. Still later in the same year he received from
the President of France the medal of the French
Legion of Honor, the highest distinction conferred
by the French Government for military valor, and
has also been made a Chevalier of the Legion of
Honor, an order founded by Napoleon the First
The certificate for this honor reads as follows:
"The Grand Chancellor of the National Legion of
Honor hereby certifies that on May 5, 1919, the
President of the Republic of France conferred upon
James C. Dozier, Lieutenant, Company G, Ii8th In-
fantry of the American Army, a decoration of the
Chevalier of the Order of National Legion of
Honor."
Lieutenant Dozier took an active part in the
campaign and drive for the Victory Loan in the
spring of 1919. The motion picture made under
the auspices of the Government and for use in pro-
moting that loan was known as **The Price of
Peace" and contained a film illustrating Lieutenant
Dozier in the act of charging a nest of machine
guns.
Since returning to his home at Rock Hill Lieu-
tenant Dozier has resumed business as an official of
the City Wholesale Grocery Company.
While his is one of the most brilliant and out-
standing records among South Carolinians in the
World war, he had three brothers who yielded noth-
ing to him in patriotic devotion. His brother Sidney
W. was sergeant in Company H of the One Hun-
dred and Eighteenth Infantry, having volunteered
a few da3rs after war was declared. Leroy Dozier
joined the navy and crossed the ocean on duty
several times.
The youngest brother, John A. Dozier, was only
sixteen years of age when the European war broke
out in 1914. Soon afterward in his zeal to become
a soldier he went to Canada and joined, the famous
Princess Patricia Regiment. He was in that regi-
ment at the battle of Vimjr Ridge, in which only
eighty-three out of something over 900 men com-
prising the regiment came out unhurt or not killed.
He was wounded in that battle, and after leaving
the hospital at London received an honorable dis-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
27
charge from the Canadian army. Soon * afterward
he returned to America and immediately enlisted in
the United States Navy and was in service until the
summer of 1919.
Thomas J. Price. The lifetime interests of
Thomas J. Price have been identified with that sec-
tion of old Abbeville County now McCormick Coun-
ty and particularly the town and business center
and county seat of McCormick. While Mr. Price
is best known as a merchant, he has always kept
in close touch with agriculture both as a land
owner and planter. He was one of the men chiefly
responsible for the organization of the present
County of McCormick.
He was bom in 1867 at the Price homestead four
miles from the present Town of McCormick, son of
Abraham and Permelia (Beatty) Price. His par-
ents represented two of the older families of Abbe»
Yillc County. Thomas J. Price grew up on a farm,
had a common school education, and on reaching
his majority he bought a farm on the edge of the
Town of McCormidc. Gradually his business af-
fairs became more extensive than his individual
farm. He was interested in the oil mill and live-
stock industry, and about ten years ago engaged
in the general merchandise business. His home has
been in the Town of McCormick since 1901. He
is now head of the T. J. Price Company, a com-
plete organization for an adequate mercantile serv-
ice, supplying all things required in the home and on
the farm, dealing in grain, hay, cotton, farm imple-
ments, dry goods, notions and shoes.
The business is a credit to the county seat of one
of the richest and most promising counties in the
state. Mr. Price for several years labored unselfish-
ly to create sentiment and influence the State Legis-
lature to create the new County of McCormick.
After it was established in 19 16 he consented at con-
siderable sacrifice of his own interests to accept
the office of county superintendent of schools, to
which he was elected. His administration has been
notable, though he makes little profession of being
a practical school man or educator. He has taken
sound business judgment and common sense to the
administration of the local schools. He started
with no school fund for the county, and yet dur-
ing the past three years the county has paid its
teachers, has built new schools, has carried on the
system of education without borrowing a dollar,
and now has over $7,000 in the treasury. The state
superintendent of education calls this the best rec-
ord made by any county in the state.
Mr. Price married Sallie E. Ednfiund, of Abbe-
ville County. They have a family of four daugh-
ters and two sons: Mrs. Ruth Duncan, Mrs. Ethel
Davis, Mrs. Linnie Hurd and Miss Kate Price,
Thomas Ansel and Metz Price.
J. Capers Gambrell. Probably the most com-
plete, thoroughly organized business community in
South Carolina is the Village of Ware Shoals, the
central features of which are the great cotton mills
of the Ware Shoals Manufacturing Company.
While operated incidentally and subsidiary to this
primary industry, the other departments of the com-
pany's enterprise make an imposing aggregate of
business in themselves. This group of mercantile.
public utility and other industries has as its active
manager J. Capers Gambrell, who has occupied his
present post of duty and responsibility for the past
thirteen years.
Mr. Gambrell was born at Princeton, Laurens
Coimty, in 1874, a son of E. B. and Nancy Caroline
(Riley) Gambrell. He was educated in the public
schools of Princeton, Wofford College at Spartan-
burg, and had an early business training and ex-
perience at Greenwood. June 4, 1906, he came to
the Ware Shoals Manufacturing Company. He is
the executive manager in charge of the Ware Shoals
Bank, various mercantile interests including the ice
factory, cotton gin, grist mill, laundry, the dairy
farm, and, in general, all the business and indus-
trial interests with the exception of the cotton mills
themselves. It is conceded that Ware Shoals is
the finest mill town in the United States, where
more things are done for the comfort, happiness
anjd prosperity of the citizens than in any similar
community an3rwhere.
Mr. Gambrell takes a particular interest and en-
thusiasm in the magnificent herd of pure-bred
Guernsey dairy cattle, one of the company enter-
prises and as a result of which the village popu-
lation has a source of milk supply of unexcelled
quality and purity. With good milk, public water
supply, ice, free public schools and the many other
institutions and improvements that have been in-
stituted and carried out by the companv it is easy
to understand how the people of Ware Shoals might
well be envied for their comfort and prosperity by
many larger communities of the country.
Mr. Gambrell is a Knight Templar Mason and
Shriner. He married Miss Mary K. McCullough,
of Greenville County. She is a niece of the late
Col. J. H. McCullough, who was one of the big
men of his time in Greenville County, a planter, stock
man, merchant and owner of many noted race horses.
Mr. and Mrs. Gambrell have five children, James
B., Mary, Elizabeth, William and J. Capers Mc-
Cullough. James B. Gambrell is a graduate of The
Citadel at Charleston, and during the war with
Germany volunteered in the Marine Corps, served
eight months, and rose to the rank of first lieutenant.
John Randolph Cheatham. Since early man-
hood John Randolph Cheatham has given his un-
divided time and abilities to banking. He helped or-
ganized the People's Bank of McCormick, one of
the younger and rapidly growing financial insti-
tutions in that section of the state.
Mr. Cheatham was born in Edgefield County,
member of the South Carolina family of Cheat-
hams which furnish more than one name of promi-
nence and distinction in the South. His grand-
father, John T. Cheatham, served in the Confederate
army and was especially influential during the car-
pet bag regime. His wife was an Adams, mem-
ber of the prominent family of that name in Edge-
field. John Randolph Cheatham is a son of John
Randolph and Mary (Harvley) Cheatham.
Mr. Cheatham grew up on his father's farm at
the Cheatham home place ten miles east of Mc-
Cormick. He acquired a good common school
education and from school went to work to learn
the banking business. For seven years he was
connected with the Bank of Troy, and in Septem-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
ber, 1917, while the People's Bank of McCormick
was in process of organization, he assisted through
his experience and technical knowledge of bank-
ing, and was elected cashier of the new bank. He
has been instrumental in building up this strong
and successful bank. The People's Bank started
with a capital of $25,000 and its present capital is
$50,t)oo. The bank owns its own building, a fine
fiiree-story modern brick block, with facilities for
offices as well as a modern home for the bank. The
president of the bank is J. P. Abney of Greenwood.
Mr. Cheatham married Miss Hermine Young-
blood, daughter of Dr. D. W. »Youngblood
and granddaughter of Captain Youngblood
of Edgefield. Through her paternal grand-
mother she is related to the Wigfall family of
Edgefield. Mrs. Cheatham's mother was a dau^-
ter of Reverend Herman, who was at one time
pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Edge-
neld. South Carolina, arid afterward went to North
Carolina, where he died. Mr. and Mrs. Cheatham
have two children: Herman R. and Mary Wigfall.
Stewart Wylie Pryor, M. D. When death
stopped his generous heart and stayed his skillful
hand on December 27, 1918, at the age of fifty-four.
Doctor Pryor had achieved an enviable place among
America's most gifted surgeons. While members of
his profession in many states marked with a sense
of loss his passing, his character appealed to the
affection and memory of all classes in his home
community of Chester, where he had done his best
work and given the best of himself to the highest
ideals of service through a period of thirty years.
He was one of the most notable South Carolmians
who fell victims to the dread plague of influenza
in the winter of 1918.
He was bom in Spartanburg Cotmty. January 29,
1864, a son of Stewart Love and Catherine (Haynes)
Pryor. His people were pioneers in the states of
Virginia and North Carolina, and through his
mother he was of Revolutionary stock. His father
was a skillful machinist and millwright.
Doctor Pryor spent part of his early life on a
homestead in what is now Cherokee County. He
had the discipline of regular work, but had only
such educational opportunities as were afforded by
the home schools. In 1881 he be^an clerking in a
store at Gaffney, left that position to attend a
business college at Baltimore, and during 1883-85
was employed as a bookkeeper at Gaffney. At the
same time he was trying to realize his boyhood
ambition to become a physician, and after saving
some money he resigned to enter the Atlanta
Medical College, where he was graduated with
high honor in 1887. He then practiced for a brief
time at Cherokee Spring, then for a few months at
Lowrjrville, and from there came to Chester. Doctor
Pryor was a constant student in his profession,
specializing in surgery, and took fifteen courses in
the New York Polyclinic and also attended the
famous clinics of the Mayo Brothers in Minnesota.
The skill which he early manifested as a surgeon
attracted attention and a large practice from many
remote localities, and in response to this patronage
and to fill a long felt want he established his' first
hospital, a part of his own residence at Chester.
This was enlarged from time to time, and in 1904
he built a structure specially designed for hospital
purposes and named it, in honor of his wife, the
Magdalene Hospital. The facilities of this institu-
tion had to be increased from time to time, and it is
said that for several years it handled more than
1,000 cases in medicine and surgery during a year.
The Magdalene Hospital was destroyed by fire
March 20, 1916. After using temporary buildings
for a time the splendid Pryor Hospital was com-
pleted at a cost of about $100,000. Competent
authorities pronounced it one of the best equipped
hospitals in the South. Both these hospitals had
their charity ward, and while Doctor Pryor seldom
mentioned his charity work, it is known that this
service alone was maintained at a cost of thousands
of dollars.
The work he did through so many years at Chester
brought him a well deserved fame and appreciation
throughout the state. He had served as president of
the County Medical Society, as vice president of the
South Carolina Medical Association, as member of
the Tri-State Medical Association, the Southern
Medical Association, the Southern Gynecological As-
sociation, American Medical Association, American
Association of Railway Surgeons, and was one of
the first surgeons from South Carolina elected to
membership and fellowship in the American Collie
of Surgeons. Many papers were prepared by him
for medical meetings and medical journals.
Those familiar with the heavy demands upon his
time often marveled how he could arrange to ^ve
attention to many community, business and civic
movements. He served as chairman of the Chester
Board of Health, was a trustee of the public
schools, iind was a director of the Chester Building
& Loan Association, National Exchange Bank, Bald-,
win Cotton Mills, steward of the Bethel Methodist
Episcopal Church, chief surgeon of the Carolina
and Northwestern Railway, chief surgeon of the
Lancaster and Chester Railway, consulting surgeon
of the Seaboard Air Line Railway, was a Knight
Templar Mason and Shriner, and also owned and
supervised the operation of about 2,500 acres of
plantation.
Naturally many sincere tributes were paid his life
and character after his death. One of the best of
them, adopted as the editorial opinion of the South
Carolina Medical Journal, was an editorial that ap-
peared in the Columbia State and read as follows:
"Not many men in South Carolina have made for
themselves in the last quarter a century so high a
-place in public . regard as Dr. Stewart W. Pryor
achieved in Chester, where as a physician and sur-
geon he spent his manhood doing good on an ever
enlarging scale. He was one of the pioneers of the
extension of modern surgical practice in Upper
South Carolina. It was not so long ago that most
of the skilled surgeons in this state lived in Charles-
ton — when there was not a hospital even in Colum-
bia. In those days it was necessary for patients
requiring hospital acconmiodation to be taken to
Charleston or out of the state. Doctor Pryor built
a hospital in Chester at a time when the estab-
lishment of an institution of that kind in a small
town called for a business courage not far removed
from audacity. He saw the need of the people and
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
29
resolved to fill it, disrep^arding the hazard of his
means, and he devoted hunself to the great work of
relieving pain and disease with his whole heart and
mind. The people scarcely are aware af the great
benefits that have been conferred upon them by the
physicians and surgeons whose enterprising spirit has
been not less than their fine skill and unselnsh zeal.
Without hospitals modern surgery would not exist
Now, nearly every town of 4,000 or 5,000 inhabitants
has its hospital, smd that they have been multiplied
so rapidly in recent years is due in a great measure
to the vision and toil of men like the late Doctor
Pryor, whose death is now mourned by the people
of Chester and by thousands of others throughout
the state and especially in the Piedmont district."
Almost at the beginning of his profession as a
physician and surgeon, on February 14, iSBS, Doctor
Pryor married Carrie Magdalene Tinsley, daughter
of Rufus W. and Sallie (Rogers) Tinsley of Union,
South Carolina. It was a happy marriage, and the
faithful companionship that followed proved one
of the most important sources of the strength and
enthusiasm which Doctor Pryor could take to his
chosen work. He is survived by Mrs. Pryor and
by a family of seven children. The only son is S.
W. Pryor, Jr. The daughters are Mrs. Malcolm L.
Marion. Mrs. R. H. McFaddcn, Mrs. E. O. Stein-
bach, Mrs. Alex L. Oliphant, Miss Ruth and Miss
Qara Dale Pryor.
The doctor planned in his will that "Pryor Hos-
pital" should operate under his name by the trustees
in charge. It is to go to his son, S. W. Pryor,
when he qualifies as a physician.
Joseph Murray, who began practice at St. George,
and is representative of an old and honored family
in Dorchester and Berkeley counties, identified
himself with the bar of the new county of Mc-
Cormick in 1917 and is one of the leading lawyers
of that section.
He was bom at St. George in Dorchester County
in 1887, a son of W. T. and Sallie (Judy) Murray
and a ^p-andson of Dr. Joseph Murray, who be-
sides being a ph)rsician of prominence at one time
represented Berkeley County in the House and in
the Senate.
Joseph Murray was reared and educated in St
Gcoree and graduated in 191 1 from the University
of South Carolina. He represented Dorchester
County m the State Legislature in 191 3- 14, and be-
gan practice at St George in 191 1. He built up a
substantial general practice there, and his reputa-
tion followed him to McCormick when he came
here in 1917.
Mr. Murray married Miss Mary Griffin, of Co-
Ittmbia, member of an old and prominent family
of that city, daughter of James and Wilhelmina
(Snyder) (Sriffin. Her grandfather, Ben Griffin, at
one tmie owned much of the land on which the
City of Columbia is now built. Her father, James
(iriffin. was for many years a prominent merchant
at Columbia. Mr. and Mrs. Murray have two chil-
dren, Joseph and James. Mr. Murray is a Metho-
dist and is affiliated with the Masonic Order.
Joseph B. Workman. M. D. Graduated with the
class of 1907 from the Medical College of the State
of South Carolina at Charleston, Doctor Workman
located in the environment of Ware Shoals, Green-
wood County, and for the past twelve years has
practiced medicine and surgery there and rendered
valuable professional services in one of the most
ideal industrial communities of the state. Ware
Shoals when he became a young physician there,
was just at the outset of its development as a
cotton mill town. Many industries and e;iterprises
have been added as part of the complicated sys-
tem now comprised under the Ware Shoals Manu-
facturing Company. Doctor Workman has been
adviser and a whole-souled worker in behalf of
every movement affecting the welfare and progress
of his community and is regarded with peculiar
esteem by the residents of the town.
He was born at Woodruff in Spartanburg Countv
in 1882, son of Samuel J. and Hepsy (Bamett)
Workman. The Workmans originally came from
Dublin, Ireland, to Virginia, thence to South Caro-
lina and the family have been identified with
Laurens and Spartanburg counties for more than a
century. Doctor Workman attended school at
Woodruff, and was graduated A. B. from Furman
University at Greenville in 1902. The following
year he entered the South Carolina Medical Col-
lege and remained until graduating. He is a mem-
ber in good standing of the County, State and
American Medical associations, and during the pe-
riod of the war was chairman for Walnut Grove
Township of the Greenwood County Council of
Defense.
Doctor Workman married "Miss Laura Vivian
Murphy, of Charleston. They have a son, Joseph
B.. Jr.
William Hughes Nicholson is a talented lawyer,
member of one of the firms doing an immense busi-
ness in general practice and corporation law, and
has been a live factor in the professional and pub-
lic affairs of Greenwood for a number of years.
He was born in old Edgefield County, Decem-
ber II, 1879, a son of Benjamin E. and Elizabeth
(Hughes) Nicholson. ' His father spent his active
life as a farmer and at the time of his death was
clerk of the court for Ed^field County. William
H. Nicholson attended private schools, graduated
from the University of South Carolina in 1902, and
while teaching for two years also read law and
was admitted to the bar m May, 1904. In the fall
of the same year he moved to Greenwood, and the
following winter while building up a practice he
also taught school. He was in individual general
practice until 191 1, when he became junior partner
m the firm of Grier, Park & Nicholson, a firm
handling an immense corporation practice. Mr.
Nicholson was elected to the General Assembly in
1908 and was re-elected in 1910 and 1912. Since
191 2 he has been county chairman of the democratic
party. His affairs have prospered under his ener-
getic management. Besides his interests as a lawyer
he has a farm of 1,000 acres of land. He is a lay
leader in the Methodist Episcopal Church and super-
intendent of the Sunday school.
November 18, 1914, he married Elise Bates of
Batesburg, South Carolina. They have had three
children, Ellen Bates, deceased, William Hughes,
Jr., and Benjamin Edwin Nicholson.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
WiNTHROP College, whose corporate title is the
Winthrop Normal and Industrial College of South
Carolina, has been a state institution for over a
quarter of a century, having previously been main-
tained largely as an adjunct of the city schools of
Columbia for the purpose of training teachers. A
brief history of the institution during its earlier
years deserves a place here and the record for which
can be drawn from the Memorial Address on the
origin and early history of Winthrop College written
by Dr. Edward S. Jojmes on the occurrence of the
twenty-fifth anniversary of the opening of the Win-
throp Training School. Doctor Joynes, one of the
founders of the college, and its able friend and
counsellor through all the years, had assisted in or-
ganizing the Columbia city schools in 1883, and
because of his early acquaintance and observation of
David B. Johnson, whom he had known in his
school work in Tennessee, recommended that Mr.
Johnson be elected the first superintendent of the
Columbia schools and, in the words of Doctor
Joynes, "among the services it has been my privilege
to render to South Carolina, the most valuable of all
I consider the fact that I was directly instrumental
in bringing David Bancroft Johnson into this state
and tlius making possible all for which his name
now stands."
One of the greatest obstacles Superintendent John-
son had in the Columbia schools was the lack of
trained teachers. To supply this deficiency recourse
was made to the Peabody Educational Fund, and
mainly through the influence of Robert C. Win-
throp a promise was secured of $1,500 a year, later
increased to $2,000, this sum becoming the sole finan-
cial foundation of the Winthrop Training School,
and as a recognition of Mr. Winthrop's agency the
school has since borne his ftame. The Columbia
School Board accepted this fund from Mr. Winthrop
in October, 1886, and proceeded to organize the
Winthrop Training School, D. B. Johnson being the
first superintendent. The school was first opened in
an unused room of the Columbia Theological Semi-
nary and the following year was moved to the
"Park Building." The number of pupils continued
to increase, the reputation of the school to grow,
and in time its original function of supplying
teachers for the city schools of Columbia acquired
a wider scope. The first attempt to make it a nor-
mal school for the state at large was contained in
a recommendation by Governor Richardson in 1887.
In that year the Legislature granted to the school
one scholarship of $150 for each county in the state.
In the meantime the late Benjamin R. Tillman had
become an active advocate of a state school for
agricultural and industrial education. The principal
result of the "Tillman Movement" was of course the
establishment of Qemson College, but in his first
inaugural address after his election as governor, Mr.
Tillman further recommended an industrial school
for girls and gave cordial recognition of the work
done in that field by the Winthrop Training School.
In the meantime the Training School had outgrown
its accommodations, and efforts were made to induce
the state to take over the institution and insure its
continued life and growth as a state normal institu-
tion. Doctor Joynes had proposed the matter to
Governor Tillman, and subsequently a commission
was appointed, with D. B. Johnson as chairman, and
in November, 1891, the Columbia School Board ten-
dered the Winthrop Training School to the state
with a request that the state provide for its govern-
ment and maintenance. In his message of 1891 Gov-
ernor Tillman recommended that an act be passed
providing for a State Industrial and Normal College
for Women, with the Winthrop Training School as
its normal college. This recommendation was car-
ried out in the legislative act of December 23, 1891,
and two years later the present title of the Win-
throp Normal and Industrial College of South Caro-
lina was adopted. The college was continued at
Columbia until September, 1895. In the meantime
the board of trustees had secured a location at Rock
Hill, and the cornerstone of the new college was
laid May 12, 1894.
David Bancroft Johnson, who on February 19,
1895, was unanimously elected president of the new
state college, is one of the most distinguished and
influential educators in the South. He was born at
LaGrange, Tennessee, January 10, 1856, a son of
David Bancroft and Margaret E. Johnson. His
father was president of a college at LaGrange, and
the son grew up in a college atmosphere. He re-
ceived his A. B. degree from the University of Ten-
nessee in 1877 and his Master of Arts degree from
the same university in 1880. South Carolina College
bestowed upon him the degree LL. D. in 1^5. He
was assistant professor of mathematics in the Uni-
versity of Tennessee in 1879-80; principal of the
graded schools of Abbeville, South Carolina, in
1880-82. In the words of Doctor Joynes from the
Memorial Address above noted, "during my resi-
dence at Knoxville I had become acquainted with
a youn^ man who had recently been graduated in
the University of Tennessee, and had been serving
as a teacher in the Knoxville city schools. Later he
had been assistant professor in the University in
which I was a professor; then he had served in
Abbeville as organizer and principal of the schools
in that town, and was now superintendent of schools
in New Bern, North Carolina. I had watched his
career with, interest, and was satisfied that he pos-
sessed the experience and qualification which we
needed in Columbia. So, upon ttiy nomination, he
was elected first superintendent of the Columbia
Schools." Thus for thirty-five years his name and
his work have been written largely in the history of
the Columbia City Schools and Winthrop College.
However, Doctor Johnson's great vigor and en-
thusiasm in behaH of educational ideals have made
him a leader hi many movements not directly in the
routine of his duties at Rock Hill. He established
and served as president from 1885 to 1894 of the
Columbia Y. M. C A., and during 1886-95 was chair-
man of the State Executive Committee of that body.
He also organized the South Carolina Association
of School Superintendents and the Rural School
Improvement Association in 1902. During 1910-11
he was a member of the South Carolina State Com-
mission to revise the school laws. He served as
president of the State Teachejs' Association from
T884 to 1888 and was vice president of the National
Teachers' Association in 1894 and again in 1896-97-
In 1909 he was president of the Department of Rural
and Agricultural Education of the National Elduca-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
31
tion Association, was president of the Normal School
Departinent in 191 1 and a member of the National
Commission on Normal School Statistics in 191 1 of
the National Education Association. He was presi-
dent of tlie Normal Department in 1908 and the De-
partment of Elementary Education in 1909 and of
the Southern Education Association, and was presi-
dent of the latter association in 1910. One of the
highest honors that can be conferred upon a school
man is the presidency of the American Education
Association, an honor which Doctor Johnson enjoyed
in 191 5-16.
During the period of the World war Doctor John-
son was unceasing in behalf of many patriotic duties.
He was district diairman of the United War Work
Campaign in South Carolina, was district chairman
of the Jewish Relief Campaign, and helped organize
and direct practically all the various patriotic drives
in Rock Hill and York County. He is now state
chairman for the Young Men's Christian Association
in South Carolina and besides founding the Young
Men's Christian Association at Columbia founded
a similar institution at Rock Hill. Doctor Jfohnson
is a member of the National Civic Association, the
National Peace League and the South Carolina
Historical Society.
August 6, 1902, he married Mai R. Smith, of
Charleston. They have two sons, David Bancroft
and Burgh Smith Johnson.
WnxiAM PiNCKNEY Greene, a prominent lawyer
and citizen of Abbeville, has been a member of the
South Carolina bar for nearly a quarter of a cent-
tnry, and has enjoyed the high honors of his pro-
fession and also of business and citizenship.
He was bom in Abbeville County, November 24,
i^3» a son of James H. and Elvira T. (Bowie)
Greene. His father was an Abbeville farmer. The
son attended the common schools, also the Prepara-
tory School at Due West, and in 1889 entered Er-
sldne College, where he graduated in 1893, at the
head of his class. While teaching for several years
he read law in the office of Ernest Moore at Lan-
caster, and was admitted to practice in December,
18^ The following year he practiced at Green-
wood as a partner of the late W. C. McGowan,
after whose death in 1897 he removed to Abbeville,
where he formed a partnership with William
Henry Parker. For over twenty years Mr. Greene has
shared in the most important business of the local
conrts and has tried many important cases in the
state courts. He served several times as special
judge. He is vice president of the Abbeville Cot-
ton Mills, and owns the Abbeville Press and Ban-
ner. He is a member of the Abbeville School
Board and a trustee of Erskine College and of the
Woman's College at Due West.
March 27, 1907, he married Miss Mary Hemphill.
They have two children, Mary Hemphill and Wil-
liam Pinckney, Jr. Mr. Greene is a deacon in the
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church and is a
member of the South Carolina Bar Association..
John McKee Nickles,. the well known Abbeville
lawyer and former state senator, has had a promi-
nent part in the public life of his home city and
state, and has reason to be especially well satis-
fied with the part he has played in the modern edu-
cational program of South Carolina.
He was born at Due West, South Carolina, Au-
gust 20, 1876, son of George Newton and Jane
(McKee) Nickles. His father was a well to do
and successful farmer of Abbeville County and
served twelve years as county supervisor of
Abbeville County. The son was educated in the
public schools and received his A. B. degree from
Erskine College. His later interest in education
is no doubt derived in part from his own experience
as a teacher, an occupation he followed four years.
In the meantime he was reading law under James
P. Carey, and was admitted to the bar in Decem-
ber, 1904. Since then he has been engaged in a
busy general practice at Abbeville, and for seven
years served as referee in bankruptcy.
Mr. Nickles was a member of the State Senate
during 1915-16-17-18, and then declined to become
a candidate for re-election. While in the Senate
he devoted much of his time and effort to educa-
tional measures. He was one of the authors of
the present high school law of South Carolina, and
was largely instrumental in the passage and is the
author of the Dr. John De La Howe Industrial
School Bill. After flie passage of that bill he was
appointed chairman of the Board of Trustees of
the Dr. John De La Howe Industrial School and
has interested himself in alt its work and develop-
ment
About the time the war closed Mr. Nickles, though
forty-two years of age, entered the officers training
school at Camp Gordon, Atlanta. He is a member
of the Knights of Pythias, Woodmen of the World
and Jtmior Order of United American Mechanics
and is a deacon in the Presbyterian Church at Abbe-
ville. Besides his law practice he has some farm-
ing interests. j
John Moore Mars, whose abilities have com-
mended him favorably to the people of the state
at large through his able services in the Legisla-
ture, both in the House and Senate, is a success-
ful lawyer at Abbeville, where he has been in prac-
tice for the last twelve years.
Mr. Mars was born at Cokesbury, South Caro-
lina, August 17, 1884, a son of Walter and Lucy
J. (Moore) Mars. His father was a farmer and
merchant. The son was liberally educated, attend-
ing the public schools and the conference schools,
was a student in Clemson College and afterward
attended Erskine College in Abbeville County. In
December, 1907, he was admitted to the bar and
has since carried the burdens of an increasing gen-
eral practice at Abbeville. Mr. Mars served as
a member of the Lower House of the Legislature
in 1909-10 and sat in the Senate during 1911-12-13-
14. His most recent public honor came when he
was elected mayor of Abbeville in March, 1918.
He is a strenuous advocate of every measure that
will bring the greatest degree of benefit to the
community, county and state.
Mr. Mars is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the
Knights of P)rthias, Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, Junior Order of United American Me-
chanics and the Woodmen of the World. He is a
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
October 19, igi6» he married Imogen Wilkes, of
Laurens. South Carolina.
Charles E. Coicmandes, banker and business man
of Florence, is possessed and actuated by an essen-
tially constructive spirit and has found the means of
influencing and promoting a number of important
activities in his home city and district He pre-
pared for the law and practiced several years, but
was not satisfied with the circumscribed ranp^e of
a professional man and has devoted most of his life
to working out problems of practical business.
Mr. Commander was bom in Darlington County,
South Carolina, in 1882, and was brought as a child
by his parents to Florence Coimty. He is a son of
R. C. and Sarah (McCurry) Commander. His
mother is now deceased. The grandfather, Joseph
Commander, was an extensive land owner and
planter in Darlington County in ante-bellum days.
He gave generously of his means and influence to
the promotion of various projects in his home dis-
trict, providing out of his own funds iFor the building
of the old Mount Hope Church on the Black River.
R. C. Commander for a number of years has been
a planter in Florence County.
Charles E. Commander grew up at Florence, at-
tended the public schools, and spent five years in the
University of South Carolina, three years in the aca-
demic course and two years in the law school,
where he graduated in 1904. For about a year fol-
lowing his graduation he was field and financial
agent for the Alumni Association of the University.
For another year he practiced law in Columbia
associated with the law firm of Bellinger & Town-
send. Returning to Florence in 1906, Mr. Com-
mander entered the real estate and insurance busi-
ness. Within a few years his business was tlie
largest of its kind in this part of the state. Since
1916 Mr. Commander has been owner of the Flor-
ence Motor Sales Company, which he established
in Florence and which maintains two departments
in that city, one an accessory store and the other a
general salesroom and repair plant. The business is
both wholesale and retail in automobiles and acces-
sories. Mr. Commander has a great enthusiasm for
the present and future of the automobile industry,
and is the first vice president of the South Carolina
Automotive Trades Association.
Banking circles know him as active president of
the City Savings Bank of Florence, which he or-
ganized in 1913, and which has a capital and surplus
profits of over $35,000 and deposits closely aggregat-
ing $500,000, reflecting the wonderful prosperity of
the city and adjacent district. Through the owner-
ship and operation of a large body of land Mr. Com-
mander also belongs among the farmer element of
Florence County.
He is a charter member of the Florence Rotary
Gub, which was organized in February, 1920, and
is its first vice president. He is afliliated with the
Presb)rterian Church. He married Miss Adelaide
Boyd, of Spartanburg, and their three children are
Charles E., Jr., Liela Spands and Adelaide.
John Pope Abney is one of the prominent Green-
wood bankers, cotton mill ofiicials and to a re-
markable degree has been able to utilize and com-
bine the opportunities of a comparatively brief ca-
reer to achieve prominence in business affairs.
He was bom in Saluda County, January 5, 1885,
a son of J. R. and Nannie (Clark) Abney. He
spent his bc^hood days on his father's farm, but
acquired a liberal education, supplementing his ad-
vantages in the local schools with attendance at
Wofford College, where he spent three years, leav-
ing in 1903. His banking experience has been
practically continuous since he left college.
For two years he was a messenger boy for the
Bank of Greenwood. In 1905 he joined the Farm-
ers and Merchants Bank, and served it successively
as bookkeeper, assistant cashier, cashier and presi-
dent He resigned the presidency in 1916 to become
cashier of the Bank of Greenwood.
Mr. Abney is president of the Grendel and Ninety-
Six cotton millsj is president of the People's Bank
at McCormick, is vice president of the Greenwood
Cotton Mills, and a director in the Farmers and
Merchants Bank of Greenwood and the Cambridge
Bank at Ninety-Six. His financial interests also
extend to various wholesale companies and busi-
ness organizations of this section of the state.
Mr. Abney married Miss Susie Mathews, of
Greenwood County, on June 24, 1913. They have
one daughter, Salfie Marian.
James Braddock Park has practiced law success-
fully at Greenwood since 1897. He is second mem-
ber in the well known firm of corporation lawjrers,
Grier, Park & Nicholson.
. He was born in Laurence, South Carolina, No-
vember 28, 1873, a son of James F. and Jane (Brad-
dock) Park. His father was a farmer. The son
grew up in the country and acquired most of his
primarv education in a subscription school. He
studied law in the University of Virginia and was *
admitted to the bar in 1894. He practiced one
year in his native town of Laurence, but in 1896
came to Greenwood, and soon afterward became
associated in practice with Mr. Grier. He served
four years as mayor of Greenwood, and was m
member of the commission for paving the city
streets. He is a deacon of the Presbyterian Church,
is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, and also
a Knight of Pythias and Woodman of the World.
In February, 1906, Mr. Park married Lillias
Klugh, of Greenwood County. They have four chfl-
dren: Joe Fowler, Martha Braddock, Julia Glass
and Lillias Klugh.
Harry Legare Watson was trained for the law
but inclination, success and other circumstances
have combined to keep him steadily in the profes-
sion of newspaper man. He is editor of one of
the best daily newspapers in South Carolina, The
Index-Journal at Greenwood. In the course of time
many other interests, both business and civic, have
been allotted to him and form the associations by
which he is so well known in his section of the
state.
Mr. Watson, the only child of Johnson Sale and
Charlotte Louise Watsbn, was born July 11, 1876.
at Phoenix. Greenwood County. He attended school
in h'*s native locality, and was prepared for col-
lege by W. H. Stallworth, Sr., a well known teach-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
33
er of that community. For two years he attended
Furman University m Greenville and was gradu-
ated with the A. B. degree from the University of
North Carolina in 1899.
Mr. Watson was admitted to the bar m 1908.
He practiced law one year with Maj. H. C. Till-
man, and then retired to give his full time to news-
paper work He is president of The Index- Journal
Company and editor of The Index-Journal. He is
president of the National Loan and Exchange ^Bauk,
a director of the Southeastern Life Insurance Com-
pany, a director of the Oregon Hotel Company,
director of the Chee-Ha Land Company^ a direc-
tor of the Citizens Trust Company, director of
Greenwood Chamber of Commerce and a mem-
ber of Greenwood County Highway Commission.
During 19 12- 13 he was president of the South Caro-
lina Press Association.
Mr. Watson is chairman of the Board of Trus-
tees of the Greenwood city public schools^ and
a trustee of the Greenwood Carnegie Public Library
and a trustee of Furman University and in 1916
was president of the Furman Alumni Association.
In 1912 he was a delegate to the Baltimore Na-
tional Democratic Convention which nominated
Woodrow Wilson for President. Mr. Watson is a
member and deacon of the South Main Street Bap-
tist Church at Greenwood, is a Knight Templar
Mason and member of Omar Temple of the Mystic
Shrine, a member of the Greenwood Rotary Club
and also belongs to the Kappa Alpha college fra-
ternity.
June 27, 1900, he married Miss Ella Darean, of
Phoenix, daughter of the late Rev. John H. and
Elizabeth (Townes) Dargan. To their marriage
were bom five children: Louise Montague, John
Dargan, Elizabeth Sloan, Margaret Josephine and
Ella Virginia Watson.
Frank J^arron Grier has been a lawyer and an
aaive member of the Greenwood bar since 1897.
He is also president and general counsel for the
Charleston & Western Carolina Railroad.
Mr. Grier was bom at York, South Carolina,
December 10, i860, a son of William Lowndes and
Mary (Barron) Grier. His father was a Confed-
erate soldier and captain of his company from
Mccklenberg County, North Carolina, ahd after the
war followed the profession of teaching. The son
had a public school education and in 1890 gradu-
ated from The Citadel at Charleston. For three
years he taught in the graded schools at Chester
and in the meantime studied law and was admitted
to die bar in May, 1893. For three years Mr. Grier
practiced at Kingstree, and since 1897 has enjoyed
a large general practice with home and offices
at Greenwood.
He is a Mason and Shrin^r. In October, 1898,
he married Miss Retta McWillic Withers, of Cam-
den, South Carolina. They have four children,
named Mary Barron, Nancy Shannon, Randolph
Widiers and Frank Barron.
Eugene Satterwhite Blease, a former member
of the state senate, has been a prominent lawyer
at Newberry for the past twenty years, and by
coQtintious and steadfast devotion to the best ideals
Td. v— 8
of his profession has won a high place in the South
Carolina bar.
He was bom at Newberry, January 20, 1877, a
son of Henry H. and Elizabeth (Satterwhite)
Blease. His father was both a farmer and mer-
chant. The son was educated in public schools,
the Newberry Academy, and graduated from New-
berry College in 1895. On leaving college he had
made up his mind to become a lawyer. For two
years, 1896-97, he taught school, studying law, and
in 1899 was admitted to the bat*. He has since had
a large general practice with offices both at Saluda
and Newberry. He was elected and served as a
member of the Lower House of the Legislature in
1901-02, and his service in the State Senate was ren-
dered during 1905-06, but he resigned before the
close of his term. He also served as city attorney
of Newberry four years, resigning that office. He
was elected mayor of Newberry in December, 1919,
which office he now holds. Mr. Blease married
Urbana Neel, of Newberry County.
Zaccheus Franklin Wright has been a promi-
nent factor in banking, industry and commercial
aflFairs of Newberry for thirty years.
He was born at Newberry, March 21, 1869, son
of Robert H. and Mary Frances (Bowers) Wright
His mother was a daughter of Jacob Bowers of
Newberry. His father was a merchant. Zaccheus
Wright grew up in the home of well-to-do par-
ents, was given good educational opportunities, and
also owes much to the training and influence of his
mother. He graduated from Newberry College at
the age of nineteen with the class of 1888. The
fall of the same year found him established in
business as a book and stationery merchant in his
native town, and successive years found him bur-
dened with many additional cares and responsibili-
ties in commercial affairs. In i8p7 he became cash-
ier of the Commercial Bank of Newberry, an office
he filled for many years. He has been a factor in
developing the cotton industry in and around New-
berry and in 1905 became president of the Newberry
Cotton Mill. He was elected president of the New-
berry Chamber of Commerce in 1906.
Mr. Wright is a democrat and was reared and for
many years has been an active member of the Metho-
dist Church.
Thomas Hubert Tatum. Steadily through a pe-
riod of fifteen years Thomas Hubert Tatum has
been rising to distinction as a well grounded, able
and hard working lawyer, and in that time has ren-
dered many services to link his name closely with
the welfare and progress of his home city of Bishbp-
ville.
Mr. Tatum was bom in Orangeburg. South Caro-
lina, August I, 1878, a son of John Samuel* Capers
and Martha Washington*. (Smith) Tatum. His
father was a planter. The son had the advantages
of local schools as a boy, also attended Clemson
College, and studied law in private offices and in
Georgetown University at Washington. He was
?:raduated with the LL. B. degree in 1902, and the
ollowing year began geners^ practice at Bishop-
ville. He was elected and served as a member of
the Legislature in 1907-08. He has been county
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
attorney for Lee County, has served Bishopville as
city attorney, and is a former trustee of the local
schools. Mr. Tatum is a director of the Home
Building and Loan Association, is attorney for the
People's Bank of Bishopville and the Bank of
Bethune, and is local counsel for the Atlantic Coast
Line Railway.
He is a steward of the Methodist Church, has been
for four years a lay leader for the South Carolina
Conference, and is a member of the executive com-
mittee of the Layman's Movement for that church.
November 22, 1905, he married Bessie McClair
Mann, daughter of Rev. Coke D. Mann, for many
years a minister of the Methodist Church. They
have one daughter, Eliza Milford.
William August Hantske, who is manager of
the Life Department for the Carolina Life Insur-
ance Company at Columbia, is regarded by his asso-
ciates as one of the most competent insurance men
in the South today. Mr. Hantske knows the insur-
ance business as the result of practically continuous
experience and participation from the time he was
twenty years of age to the present The volume
of business he wrote in early years as an individual
agent has brought him successive promotions, and
for over ten years he has been an executive in the
life insurance field.
Mr. Hantske was born at Mount Washington,
Baltimore County, Maryland, April 28, 1871, son of
Morris A. and Emma Augusta Hantske, both now
deceased. On both sides he comes ot an interesting
ancestry. His father was a native of Austria and
descended from a family that for generations were
noted for their attainments in the science of botany
and included some of the most noted botanists of
that country. Mr. Hantske's mother was bom at
Oldenburg, Germany, her father, Hugo Walther,
being a noted nurseryman. Through her mother she
was descended from the Bosse family, a name long
prominent in the annals of the Lutheran Church,
many of whose clergymen were of the Bosfee family.
Mr. Hantske is a grand-nephew of the late Louis
Bosse of Spartanburg, South Carolina, who was a
Confederate soldier and afterward prominent in the
reconstruction period. Morris A. Hantske and wife
were married in Germany in 1865 and at once came
to America, locating in Maryland, where for many
years he was prominent as a florist, nurseryman and
botanist at Baltimore.
William A. Hantske acquired his education in the
public schools and business colleges of Baltimore, and
in 1891, at the age of twenty, made his first effort
in the field of lite insurance. Later for about one
year he was a stock salesman, but with that ex-
ception has acknowledged no other dominant interest
in business. His work in life insurance has been
done in Maryland, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.
From 1898 to 1902 he represented the Baltimore Life
Insurance Company as manager in Pennsylvania.
In 1903 he became an agent with the Metropolitan
Life of New York, and in 1906 was promoted to
assistant manager of that company and in 191 1 to
manager. He remained with the Metropolitan until
the early part of 1916, when he was called to his
present duties by the Carolina Life Insurance Com-
pany at Columbia as manager of the Life Depart-
ment. He is also a member of the South Carolina
Life Underwriters* Association.
Like most successful insurance men, his influence
has been earnestly directed to the promotion of the
best ideals in civic, moral and educational affairs.
He has never sought public office though as a demo-
crat he has done what he could to promote clean,
progressive politics. He is one of the prominent
and well known Lutherans of South Carolina, and
during the late war was state chairman for the
Lutheran National Commission for the Welfare of
Soldiers and Sailors. He is a member of St Paul's
Lutheran Church at Columbia. Mr. Hantske is also
affiliated with Richland Lodge No. 39, Ancient Free
and Accepted Masons, and is a past grand of the
Odd Fellows and chairman of the Finance Committee
of the Grand Lodge of South Carolina. He is a
member of the Rid^ewood Country Qub.
In 1894, at Baltmiore, he married Mary Cyline
George, daughter of John and Catherine E. George.
Her father for many years was a farmer in the
Dulaney Valley section of Baltimore County. Mr.
and Mrs. Hantske have one son, William George,
who graduated from Newberry College with the
class of 1917.
CouN Bradley Ruffin, of Bishopville, a talented
lawyer, is member of the prominent Ruffin family
of North Carolina.
He was born in Edgecombe County of that state,
November 7, 1884, a son of Joseph Henry and Zil-
phi Ann (Lane) Rirfftn. His father for many years
was identified with the agricultural interests of
North Carolina. The son attended local schools,
high school, graduated from the literary department
. of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
in 1909 and completed the law course in the same
institution. For one year he taught in the high
school at Wilmington, North Carolina. Mr. Ruffin
was admitted to the bar of his native state in Au-
gust, 191 1, and to that of South Carolina in De-
cember, 1912. He came to Bishopville in the latter
year and has enjoyed a rapidly growing general
practice. He is present county attorney of Lee
County, is a director and attorney for the Farmers
Loan & Trust Company, during the war was food
administrator for Lee County, is a member of the
County Board of Education and an alderman of
Bishopville. He is also secretary of the Lee County
Democratic Club.
November 26, 1913, he married Miss Mabel Foun-
tain, of Tarboro, North Carolina, Their three chil-
dren are Marion, Mabel and Zilphi A. Lane.
Carroll Johnson Ram age, a lawyer who can look
back upon the achievements of more than twenty
years, has been a prominent factor in the business
and civic as well as professional interests of Saluda.
He was born in Edgefield County in what is now
the eastern portion of Saluda County, in May, 1874.
He attended the local schools and afterward New-
berry College, where he distinguished himself as a
student Dr. G. W. Holland was then president of
the college and took much interest in him. He
graduated and afterward received the Master of
Arts degree from Newberry. At his graduation he
won medals for English Essay and History.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
35
Mr. Ramage was admitted to the bar in 1897,
and since then has' practiced at Saluda and has
been especially well known as a civil lawyer. He is
author of two volumes of Digests of South Carolina
Reports, vols. 61 to 100, and served two years
as a special judge. He was also a member of the
State Board of Education two years and was for-
merly president and is now vice president of the
Planters National Bank of Saluda. In Mav, 1904,
he was happily married to Annie Bell Crouch.
Rev. John McSween, who to distinguish him
from his honored father, John McSween, the vet-
eran banker and business man of Timmonsville,
writes his name John McSween III, was born at
Timmonsville, November 15, 1888. Concerning his
father's career a special article is written on other
paces.
John McSween had a public school education,
graduated Bachelor of Science from Davidson Col-
lege in i9o8» and spent two years in his father's
store at Timmonsville. In 1913 he was graduated
Bachelor of Divinity from the Presbyterian Theo-
logical Seminary at Columbia. For one year he
did missionary work for his church in the moun-
tains of North Carolina, and then took a pastorate
I in the Presbyterian Church at Dillon.
He was commissioned a chaplain with the Second
South Carolina Infantry and went to the Mexicart
border with that organization in 1916. He was
mustered out in March, 19 17, and on the twenty-
fifth of July of the same year again entered the serv-
ice of the Government as chaplain at Camp Sevier.
In May, 1918, he went overseas, and served as chap-
lain of the One Hundred and Fifth Ammunition
Train of the Fifty-fifth Artillery Brigade. He was
discharged March 2:^^ 1919.
Mr. McSween married Lina Washington Crews,
of Durham, North Carolina, June 11, 1913. To their
marriage were bom three children: Allen Crews,
William Crews, and John IV, who died in 1918.
Samuel J. Roy all. While his able work as a law-
yer has made him well known in professional cir-
cles at Florence during the past five years, Samuel
J. Royall has also achieved fame as one of the
officers in the .One Hundred and Eighteenth In-
fantry Regiment, made up of South Carolinians, a
unit in the American forces which won lasting
fame on the western battlefront of France.
Mr. Royall, who was selected as historian of the
regiment by his regimental commander, and whose
account of the One Hundred and Eighteenth has
been published in book form, was bom at Florence
in 1880, son of W. N. and Mella (Norris) Royall.
The Royalls for many generations have been a
prominent family in Virgmia and North Carolina.
W. N. Royall became a prominent railway official
for many years manager of the Atlantic Coast Line
Railway with headquarters at Wilmington, North
Carolina.
Samuel J. Royall, a native of Florence, was reared
and received his early education at Wilmington.
He studied law at the University of South Carolina
at Columbia, graduating in 1914. He began prac-
tice at Florence, but nearly three years of the sub-
sequent time has been taken up in military service
for his country. He went to the Mexican border
with the old Second South Carolina Regiment of
the National Guard in July, 1916. He was on duty
there until March, 1917. He then resumed his law
practice, but after five months volunteered for the
war with Germany and was commissioned lieu-
tenant of Headquarters Company of the One Hun-
dred and Eighteenth Infantry, which as is well
known was a part of the Thirtieth Division. He
was with this regiment in all its splendid fighting
record in France, and returning to America re-
ceived his honorable discharge April 27, 1919.
Mr. Ro3rall is a member of the Kappa Sigma fra-
ternity, is also a Mason and belongs to the Epis-
copal Church. He married Miss Elizabeth Willcox,
daughter of Dr. James Willcox of Darlington.
Hon. James Emmit Beamguard. Present state
senator from York County, James Emmit Beam-
guard has for many years been one of the solid and
substantial citizens of the wealthy and rapidly grow-
ing Town of Clover, the leading business center
in the upper part of York County.
The Beamguards in South Carolina have always
been farmers and planters, though their other quali-
ties have frequently led them into public affairs.
Senator Beamguard was bom April 9, 1869, in York
County, at the family home 254 miles south of Clov-
er. This old homestead was settled by his grand-
father, who was born of Scotch parents and came
from the north of Ireland, where the Beamguards
had lived for some generations. They are, there-
fore, of the Scotch-Irish stock. Senator Beam-
guard is at son of Capt. J. W. and Mona (Steven-
son) Beamguard. His father was born in the same
locality of York County and served four years as a
Confederate soldier, being captain of a company
in the Eighteenth South Carolina Regiment.
James E. Beamguard had a common school edu-
cation, and since early manhood his business affairs
have been centered at the ancestral Beamguard
place south of Clover. Since 1916 he has also
played an important role in the business affairs of
Clover, being secretary, treasurer and manager of
the Clover Cotton Oil Mill and Ginning Company,
manufacturers of cotton seed products and ginners
of cotton.
His political experience and participation in pub-
lic affairs is a record of many years. From 1894
to 1900 he was clerk of the Senate Finance Com-
mittee of the General Assembly, then represented
his county in the House from 1900 to 1908, and since
1912 has served continuously as senator from York
County. He was re-elected in 1916 and was chair-^
man of the committee on privileges and elections
and a member of the committee on rules, agriculture
and finance. His name has been associated with
much of the important legislation enacted in South
Carolina during the last twenty years.
Senator Beamguard is a deacon in the Presby-
terian Church and teacher of the men's class of the
Sunday school, while fraternally he is affiliated with
the Masons, Woodmen of the World and Junior
Order of United American Mechanics. He married
Miss Mittie Dorsett, of York County, on April 2,
1895. Their daughter, Miss Bleeker Beamguard^
graduated with the class of 1919 from Chicora
College at Columbia.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Frederick William James Germany. In the
wholesale district of Columbia stands a large three-
story plant, office and cold storage plant, operated
under the business title of Germany-Roy-Brown
Company. The president of this company is Fred
Germany, whose full Christian name has just been
given. In a peculiar degree this institution repre-
sents the life work and enterprise of Mr. Germany.
As it is one of the organizations doing most to
establish Columbia as one of the great wholesale
centers of the South, there is also the highest degree
of personal credit due the president of the company
for building' up the business and making his indi-
viduality and energy count as a powerful commer-
cial stimulus to his native city.
Mr. Germany was born at Columbia February 13,
1872. His parents, William Jackson and Elizabeth
E. (Taylor) Germany, are now deceased. Mr. Ger-
many is their only surviving son, and he has three
sisters.
To the age of sixteen his life was spent at home
and in attending the local schools. At that age
he made himself a regular assistant to his father
in the grocery business, and after four jrears of
working experience he went north and entered the
Eastman Business College at Poughkeepsie, New
York, and completed his training for his chosen life-
work.
On returning to Columbia Mr. Germany engaged
in office work, and for three years was bookkeeper
with the wholesale firm of R. B. and D. McKay,
one of the well k.iown and old established firms of
the South.
The letter-heads of the Germany-Roy-Brown Com-
pany bear the words "Established 1894." That date
commemorates the independent but exceedingly
modest start of Mr. Germany as a retail grocer
in Columbia. At that time he had the experience,
the training, a sound knowledge of merchandising
and business principles, had earned some credit, but
had a very limited capital to embark. Moreover he
entered business at a time of widespread financial
depression. Against those disadvantages were ar-
rayed his energy, ambition, skillful and studious
management, and the result was that he was soon
handling a capacity trade, and his business grew
in volume every year. It is a matter of special in-
terest to note that Mr. Germany still continues the
retail grocery business in which he gained his first
success and at its original location.
His wholesale business was a direct outgrowth of
his retail establishment. In 1914 he entered into
partnership with Mr. J. E. Young, making the firm
Young & Germany. Mr. Young died in December,
1918. and in January, 1920, the old firm of Young
& Germany gave way to the new corporation of
Germany-Roy-Brown Company, with Mr. Germany
as president, A. F. Brown, vice president, and Mr.
T. L Roy, secretary and treasurer. Their business
is groceries, fruit and produce, and in those lines
the company has become securely established in the
confidence and patronage of a large southern terri-
tory. In order to expedite the handling of the grow-
ing volume of business the company maintains branch
houses at Florence and Spartanburg. They also
have a thoroughly equipped and modern cold storage
plant at Columbia.
Twenty-five years after his first humble venture
as a merchant in Columbia Mr. Germany found him-
self financially independent, and esteemed as he
really is one of the leading business men of the
capital city.
He has also found time to cultivate other interests.
He is a director in the Carolina National Bank
of Columbia and is the owner of two fine farms,
one in Richland and the other in Lexington County,
both convenient of access to Columbia. Through his
ownership of these properties Mr. Germany is deeply
interested in agricultural development, and gives his
liberal support and encouragement to any movement
tending toward improved farming, greater produc-
tion, good roads, and improved rural conditions.
Though taking an interest in clean politics and
public questions, he has never been a contender
for public office, and has believed that he could
render the greatest service to the world by concen-
trating his attention on his business. He is affiliated
with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is
a member of the Board of Deacons of the First
Baptist Church at Columbia.
In the spring of 1899 he married Miss Blanche
Smith, of Greenville. She died in 1915. In the
spring of 1917 he married Miss Effie Berry, of
Wilmington, Delaware. Mrs. Germany is prominent
in church, charities and other causes in which the
leading women of Columbia participate.
Capt. C. Albert Johnson, of Rock Hill, is a
prominent business man of that city, member of
the wholesale grocery house of Blankenship & John-
son, and was a South Carolina officer in the late
war, serving with the rank of captain in the Sixth
Division.
He was born at Rock Hill in 1888, a son of J. B.
and Ida (Boyd) Johnson. His father for many
years was a prominent merchant and capitalist of
Rock Hill, and among present connections is presi-
dent of the York County Cotton Association.
Captain Johnson was liberally educated, attending
the Citadel at Charleston two years and graduat-
ing from Wofford College at Spartanburg in 1906.
On leaving college he entered upon a business ca-
reer at Rock Hill, and his personal part in the
firm of Blankenship & Johnson has been a strong
factor in making that one of the leading whole-
sale grocery houses of the state. In August, 1919,
the firm notably expanded its facilities by estab-
lishing a branch house at Gastonia, North Carolina.
In August, 191 7, Captain Johnson entered the
Second Officers Training Camp at Fort Oglethorpe,
received a commission as captain, and was assigned
to duty with the Sixth Division. He was in camp
at Anniston, Alabama, Chickamauga, Tennessee,
and Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina, until July,
1918, when he went overseas His division saw its
first active duty at the Vosges, and later partici-
pated in some of the phases of the great Argonne-
Meuse drive. He spent the winter of 19 18- 19 in
France and on the German frontier and returned
home and received his honorable discharge May 2,
1919.
Captain Johnson is a member of the Methodist
Church, and is affiliated with the Masonic f rater-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
37
nity. He married Miss Carrie Anderson, and they
have one daughter, Caroline.
Frank Oscar Black during the ten years since
he left college has been devoted to educational
work, and his present position in his profession is as
county superintendent of schools of Saluda.
He was born in Saluda County, May lo, 1886, a
son of John David and Marina (Satcher) Black.
He grew up on his father's farm, had some of its
duties while attending local schools, and acquired his
higher education in the Ridge Spring High School
and at Newl)erry College, where he graduated in
iuric, 1909. He taught school at Prosperity and
ittle Mountain, also at Bainbridge, Georgia, and
was a high school principal four years. In Janu-
ary, 1917, he was elected county superintendent of
schools of Saluda County. Mr. Black is a member
of the Lutheran Church, is a Royal Arch Mason and
a Knight Templar and Shriner, and affiliated with
the Woodmen of the World.
June 28, 191 1» he married Miss Lillian Hill, of
Newberry. They have three children, Francis, Lucy
and Susan.
William Henry Keith. While he inherits the
traditions of a family long identified with the busi-
ness affairs of Timmonsville, William Henrjr Keith
has made his own career a means of increasing the
prestige of that city as a commercial center, and
has labored faithfully and successfully for a quar-
ter of a century in building up one of the largest
concerns of its kind in Florence County.
He was born at Timmonsville, February 7, 1873,
a son of Jesse E. and Kate (Sykes) Keith. His
father was a merchant at Timmonsville for many
years. The son had a public school education, and
also attended The Citadel at Charleston. When a
young man he went to work in the store of John
McSwcen, his step-father, general merchant at Tim-
monsville. That business was incorporated in 1899,
at which time he became vice president. When
Mr. McSween retired he was succeeded by Mr.
Keith as president. Mr. Keith is also president of
the McSween Mercantile Company at Lamar and
is a director of the Bank of Timmonsville and the
Merchants and Planters Bank at Lamar. He is
also a director of the Timmonsville Oil Mill.
While his time has been well taken up by his va-
ried business interests, he has served acceptably in
public responsibilities, being a former alderman and
former mayor of Timmonsville. During the war
he was chairman of the local exemption board of
Florence County. Mr. Keith has been a deacon
in the Presbyterian Church since it was organized
in Timmonsville. April 14, 1897, he married Miss
Cora Byrd, of Timmonsville. They have two chil-
dren, Dorothy Sykes and Margaret Louise.
Mason Davis Nesmith, who is a dental surgeon
by profession, has in addition to his professional
work performed many interesting public services
and been active in business affairs in Lake City,
where he has had his home since 1905.
He was born in the old community of South Caro-
lina named for his family, Nesmith, April 15, 1874,
son of William Edward and Lydia J. (Joseph)
Nesmith, substantial farming people of that vicinity.
He was first educated in public schools, atttended
Clemson College, and in 1905 graduated from the
Atlanta Dental College at Atlanta, Georgia, and
finished the pharmacy course in the same year.
Since then he has been a resident of Lake City and
active in his profession and in business. He is
vice president of the Lake City Insurance Com-
pany and a director of the Bank of Lake City. Soon
after he identified himself with this community he
was made chairman of the Committee of Public
Works, and helped give Lake City its present splen-
did water system. He also served as an alder-
man three years, as trustee of the graded schools,
and is now a member of the Board of Assessors
for his district. Doctor Nesmith is a deacon of the
Baptist Church.
June 14, 1905, he married Virgie Elizabeth Brooks,
of Georgia. Their five children are Catherine
Lydia. Julia Brooks, Ethel Elizabeth, Daisy Florence
and Mason Davis, Jr.
Woodruff Holston Low man has been the first
and only cashier of the Citizens Bank of Timmons-
ville. He was identified with the organization of
the bank in 1901. At that time its capital was
$30,000 but in 1919 this was increased to $75,000.
The bank also has surplus of $37,500, while its de-
posits aggregate $300,000.
Mr. Lowman was bom in Edgefield County, South
Carolina, June 22, 1861. He acquired his early edu-
cation in the public schools and his early business
experience as clerk and bookkeeper at Batesburg.
In 1885 he went to Arkansas and for a time was a
bookkeeper at Lonoke. Later he engaged in the
general merchandise business at Orangeburg in his
native state, and was a general merchant at Tinri-
monsville until he entered the Citizens Bank in
1901. He is also a trustee of the graded schools
and has all the best interests of the community at
heart. He is a deacon of the Baptist Church.
In March, 1885, he married Miss Sallie Meyer
of Batesburg. To their marriage were born four
children: Eugene Meyer; Ruby, wife of C. L.
Smith; Woodruff H., Jr., who served as a first
lieutenant in Company A of the Three Hundred and
Tenth Infantry with the Seventy-Eight Division
in the Expeditionary Forces; and Norwood, who is
still a student.
Joseph F. Haselden, M. D. For fifteen years
Doctor Haselden has practiced his profession at
Greeleyville, is the leading physician and surgeon
of that community, and both through his profession
and through his influence as a citizen has done
much to promote the continued growth and improve-
ment of what is one of the most prosperous com-
mercial and home towns in Williamsburg County.
Doctor Haselden was born near the present Town
of Johnsonville in Williamsburg County in 1871,
son of S. B. and Adele (Johnson) Haselden. The
Haseldens are of English ancestry, and the John-
son, family has long been prominent in Williams-
burg County, the Town of Johnsonville being named
in their honor.
Doctor Haselden prepared for his profession by
two years spent in the Medical College of South
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Carolina at Charleston, and in 1904 he graduated
from the Baltimore Medical College at Baltimore.
Immediately after graduation he chose the promis-
ing community of Greeley ville as his home, and
has found there all the opportunities that an ambi-
tious medical man desires.
Doctor Haselden married Miss Mamie Boyle. She
is a niece of Mr. T. W. Boyle, whose noteworthy
part in building up the Town of Grceleyville has
been described elsewhere. Doctor and Mrs. Hasel-
den have three children : Elizabeth, Boyle and Fleet-
wood.
Hon. John Hardin Marion. While the family
represented by John Hardin Marion, a prominent
lawyer and state senator of Chester, has been identi-
fied with South Carolina only about a century, it is
possible to assert on authentic genealogical evidence
that several generations earlier the ancestors of this
branch coincided with those of the celebrated Revo-
lutionary leader and South Carolina general, Francis
Marion. Francis Marion, the general, was a grand-
son of Benjamin and Louise (d' Aubrey) Marion.
They were French Huguenots, came from the north
of Ireland and settled in South Carolina early in
the eighteenth century, living near Georgetown.
These French Huguenots had left France after the
revocation of the Edict of Nantes and settled in the
north of Ireland. Some of them remained there
nearly a century after the emigration of the grand-
parents of General Marion. Between 1815-20 Patrick
Marion, who was born at Craigbilly, County Antrim,
in 1772, came to America and located in the upper
part of Fairfield District. He married Jane Mc-
Neely. Their son John Alexander Marion became a
planter in Chester County, and through a long life
was prominently identified with affairs in that sec-
tion. He married Margaret Jane Sterling.
Their son James Taylor Marion, long a con-
spicuous figure in the business life of Chester
County, was father of John Hardin Marion.
The late James Taylor Marion was born near
Richburg in 1845, and at the age of sixteen enlisted
in Company D of the Seventeenth South Carol iim
Infantry. Later he was transferred to Company B
of the Fourth Cavalry, Army of Northern Virgmia.
At Cold Harbor May 30, 1864, he was captured and
spent thirteen months in Elmira prison. Following
the war he engaged in merchandising at Lewisville.
He is remembered as a man of great energy and
public spirit, and became widely known in business,
social and church circles. He died in 191 1. He, as
did also his father before him, served as a ruling
elder in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian
Church.
James Taylor Marion married Jane A. Hardin, of
a prominent Chester County family of English an-
cestry. The Hardins have lived in Chester County
since the Revolution, and among the prominent char-
acters of the name one was the late Peter Lawrence
Hardin, who died in 1914 and who for twenty years
represented his county in the Lower House and in
the State Senate. He was a brother of Jane A.
Hardin. She was a daughter of Peter and Rebecca
(King) Hardin and was born August 24, 1853, and
died June 20, 1916.
John Hardin Marion, who was born in Chester
County October 23, 1874, has earned distinctions of
his own in addition to those of his ancestry. He
acquired his literary and legal education in the Uni-
versity of South Carolina, graduating with the de-
grees A. B. and LL. B. in 1893. At that time he was
only nineteen years old, and it required a special
act of the Legislature to admit him to the bar. Re-
turning to Chester, he formed a partnership to prac-
tice with Hon. William A. Barber, then attorney
general of South Carolina. In later years he has
been senior member of the firm Marion & Marion.
Since 1902 Mr. Marion has been general counsel for
the Carolina and Northwestern Railway. His prac-
tice, always large and important, is about evenly
divided between corporation and general cases.
One of the eminent members of the Supreme
Bench of South Carolina has paid Mr. Marion the
following tribute: "He has been a student of the
law all of his mature years. He has an ample
library of law books. His preparation is tireless
and thorough. He is much of an a4vocate before
judge ajid jury. He has a good voice, pleasing
countenance, is apt in anecdote and repartee. He is
perhaps at his best before the jury; but before the
court he is strong and helpful. His private library
of select volumes is full and he diligently studies
them. He adds to the accomplishments of a lawyer
the attainments of the scholar. He is a m'an of
quiet but determined courage. His word is as good
as his bond, and he may be fully trusted in all of
the relations of life."
His active career has not been altogether law
work. When the Spanish-American war broke out
he >Yent in as second lieutenant of Company D, First
Regiment, South Carolina Infantry, and afterward
served in the National Guard, retiring with the rank
of lieutenant colonel in 1907. During the World
war he gave a generous part of his time to patriotic
causes, having charge of the Speakers' Bureau for
the second Red Cross campaign, was county chair-
man of the United War Work campaign and made
many speeches in behalf of all war measures and
movements.
Colonel Marion served as a member of the Lower
House of the General Assembly from 185^ to 1900,
and in 1918 was elected state senator from Chester
County, serving in the session of 1919. He has
always been greatly interested in education and for
several years has been a member of the Board of
School Trustees of Chester. He is a member of
the Associate Reformed Presb)rterian Church, a
teacher of its Bible Class at Chester, and is affiliated
with the Masonic Order and the Knights of Pythias.
By his marriage he is allied with several historic
families. December 31, 1902, Miss Mary Pagan
Davidson became his wife. She was bom at Chester,
daughter of Col. William Lee and Annie Irvine
(Pagan) Davidson. Col. William Lee Davidson was
a son of Benjamin Wilson and Betsie (Latta)
Davidson, of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.
William Lee Davidson served with the rank of
colonel in the Seventh North Carolina Infantry in
the Confederate army, and gined distinction in
that war. His grandfather, Maj. John Davidson,
was one of the signers of the Meckl'enburg Declara-
tion of Independence, and was a gallant soldier and
officer in the Revolutionary war. Annie Irvine
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
39
Pagan, mother of Mrs. Marion, was a daughter of
Maj. James Pagan of Chester County, who held the
rank of major in the Confederate army and for
many years was a successful merchant at Chester.
James Pagan married Anne Fayssoux, daughter of
Peter Fayssoux, who was a son of Dr. Peter Fays-
soux of Charleston, the Continental surgeon re-
ferred to and quoted by McCready in "South Caro-
lina in the Revolution." Peter Fayssoux, father of
Anne, married Rebecca Irvine, whose father, Gen.
William Irvine, was a member of Washington's staff
and after the Revolution was distinguished by his
work in military campaigns and in the civil affairs
of Pennsylvania.
WiiXLiAM Tillman McGowan. His associates
and clients look upon Mr. McGowan as one of the
accomplished younger lawyers, able, hard working,
diligent and faithful to all the interests committed
to his care. He enjovs a fine position in his pro-
fession at Timmonsville.
He was born in Hyde County, North Carolina,
October 8, 1882, son of Henry Lawrence and Dell
(Stotesbury) McGowaii. He spent his boyhood
on his father's farm, attended private schools, took
his A. B. degree from the University of North
Carolina in 1907 and was awarded the degree Mas-
ter of Science by the same institution in 1908. For
four years he was a teacher and superintendent of
schools at Lynchburg, South Carolina. Mr. Mc-
Gowan graduated from the law department of the
University of North Carolina in 191 1. He was ad-
mitted to the South Carolina bar in 1913, and built
up his early practice at Bishopville, where he re-
mained until 19 1 5, having now a general practice
at Timmonsville.
February 20, 1917, he married Susie Hill, of Abbe-
ville. They have one son, William Tillman, Jr.,
bom November 20, 1917. Mr. McGowan is a mem-
ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is a
thirty-second degree Mason and a member of Omar
Temple.
William C. Davis for many years has been promi-
nent as a lawyer and banker at Manning, and is a
member of an old family of Clarendon County.
His father, James E. Davis, was for sixteen years
clerk of the court at Manning.
William C. Davis was born on his father's farm
near Manning February 12, 1870, son of James E.
and Anna M. Davis. He was liberally educated
and was given a thorough military discipline while
a student in The Citadel at Charleston, where he
was graduated at the age of nineteen. He began
the study of law with Joseph F. Rhame, after which
he entered the University of Virginia, and in 1891
was admitted to the Virginia bar. On returning
home he formed a partnership with Joseph F.
Rhame, his former preceptor. As a young lawyer
he also took an active part in local military affairs,
and was captain of the Manning Guards, which in
May, 1898, was mustered into the United States
volunteer service as Company D of the Second South
Carolina. He was captain of his company, and
served as judge advocate of the Seventh Army
Corps while in Cuba. He spent three months in
Cuba and was mustered out in April, 1899. Dur-
ing the World war Captain Davis was chairman
of the Council of Defense of Clarendon County,
and took' a permanent part in all war activities.
From 1894 to 1898 he was a member of the Legis-
lature and was on the judiciary committee. He
has been interested in various local business affairs,
was formerly a director of the Manning Oil Mill,
is a director of the Carolina Stock Farms Com-
pany and is president of the First National Bank
of Manning, which was reorganized in March, 1918,
under a national charter.
May 17, 1894, Captain Davis married Clara J.
Huggins, daughter of Doctor Huggins of Manning.
Raymond Clyde Rollins during the greater part
of his active business career since leaving college
has been identified with the Bank of Timmons-
ville. This is one of the strong financial institu-
tions of Florence County and has lent its resources
effectively to the upbuilding of that community for
many years. The bank is capitalized at $100,000,
surplus of $15,000 and its deposits in 1919 aggregated
$500,000. •
Raymond Clyde Rollins was born at Timmons-
ville, October 6, 1877, son of William DeLeslie and
Addie Eugenia (Morris) Rollins. His father for
many years was a railway telegraph operator. The
son was educated in public schools and was a mem-
ber of one of the early classes of Clemson Col-
lege. On leaving college he entered the Bank of
Timmonsville, acquired considerable knowledge of
banking at that time, but afterward spent six years
as bookkeeper with the John McSween Mercan-
tile Company. In 1901 he returned to the bank as
cashier, and has been steadily at his post promot-
ing the interest of the bank and the welfare of its
customers for nearly twenty years. In Januarv,
1020, he was made active vice president of the bank.
He is also secretary and treasurer and has held
those offices since the organization of the Timmons-
ville Building and Loan Association. Mr. Rollins
is a former alderman, is a steward of the Metho-
dist Ep'scopal Church, superintendent of its Sunday
school, is past chancellor of the Knights of P3rthias,
and past worshipful master of the Masonic Lodge.
July 20, 1899, he married Addie Elizabeth Cokes,
of Timmonsville. Their six children are Raymond
Clyde, Jr., now a student in Wofford CollegCj^ Fran-
ces Eugenia, ' who is attending Columbia College,
George DeLeslie, Edwin Morris, Ellen Elizabeth and
Herbert Cokes.
Frederick Lesesne. The name Lesesne is of
Huguenot origin, and the family of that name has
been numerously represented in South Carolina for
many generations. The Lesesnes were among the
early settlers on the Santee River in St. Mark's
Parish.
Frederick Lesesne, a lawyer of Manning, was
born in Clarendon County, April 18, 1875, son of
Henry H. and Letitia (Wells) Lesesne. His father
was a farmer, and at the beginning of the war
between the states entered the Confederate army as
first lieutenant of Company I, Twenty-Third South
Carolina Regiment. He was later promoted to n\a-
jor of the same regiment and was with Lee at
Appomattox. Major Lesesne spent many years as
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
a farmer in Clarendon County and was elected
county sheriff in 1878 and had held that. office for
fourteen years, until his death in 1891. A Camp
of Sons of Confederate Veterans was named in his
honor.
Frederick Lesesne was educated in the Manning
Academy, also took a business college course, and
from 1897 to 1915 was employed as a bookkeeper.
In the latter year he began the study of law in
the University of South Carolina and was admitted
to the bar in 1917, since which date he has had a
feneral practice at Manning. Mr. Lesesne is a
Loyal Arch Mason and Shriner and is a trustee of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
JuuAN F. NoHRDEN. The late Julian F. Nohr-
den, of Charleston, principal of the Mitchell
School, was taken from life when in the period
of his greatest usefulness, and yet it cannot be
truthfully said that his work is ended, for the
influence he exerted, the weight of the example
of his upright and patriotic actions and the results
of his conscientious and intellectual instructions,
remain and bear witness to the value of the man
and citizen. He was born at Charleston, August
20, 1888, and died in his natal city of typhoid fever
August 6, 1918. His parents were F. E. and Flor-
ence (Harris) Nohrden.
Julian F. Nohrden was a product of Charleston
in every respect, and his death was a distinct loss
to his community. Educated at The Citadel, he
was orator of his class, and was graduated with
honoifs in 1908, although he had won a scholarship
in the Charleston College at the age of sixteen
years, resigning it to accept appointment to The •
Citadel. While he won distinction in educational
matters, he was also prominent in athletics, and
was a well known fi^re in both base ball and
foot ball. After leavmg The Citadel Mr. Nohr-
den associated himself with the News and Courier
as a reporter, with the idea of following news-
paper work while he studied law, but changed his
mind and accepted the position of assistant prin-
cipal of one of the public schools of Charleston,
and in it found his life work. Later his talents
were recognized by his promotion to be principal
of the Mitchell School. Subsequently he was fur-
ther honored by being appointed assistant super-
intendent of the public schools of Charleston, dis-
charging the onerous duties of both positions at
the time of his death. Not only was Mr. Nohrden
intellectually fitted to hold the positions to which
he was appointed, he had in his heart that inherent
love and understanding of children without which
no educator can render the best service to his
pupils. Inspiring them with a love and winning
their confidence and respect, he was able to gain
from them a willing and joyous compliance with
his regulations which resulted in his school show-
ing remarkable advances in scholarship.
While he left newspaper work for the school-
room. Mr. Nohrden never entirely lost his liking
for literary work, and for several years edited the
sporting page of the Charleston American. In
addition to all of the multitudinous demands on
his time and strength, when this country entered
the World war, Mr. Nohrden found opportunity
to render efficient service, and led by him the
children of all the schools, especially those of
the Mitchell School, participated in all of the
various war activities taking particular interest
in the Red Cross work. As a slight memorial to
his memory and in recognition of his efforts in
behalf of their children, the members of the
Parent-Teachers Association of the Mitchell
School awarded a scholarship to the Charleston
College.
On June 29, 191 1, Mr. Nohrden was married at
Charleston to Oriole Walsh, a daughter of James
and Mary Walsh, all of Charleston. Mrs. Nohrden
was educated at Lucas Academy, from which she
was graduated. They had two children, Maynard,
who was born June i, 1912; and Francis Walsh,
who was born December 14, 1917.
The funeral services of Mr. Nohrden was held
at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Rev. Harold
Thomas officiating. The following acted as pall-
bearers: Honorary: Messrs. Hames Simons,
Julius E. Cogswell, T. W. Passailaigue, Sr., Mon-
tague Triest, Andrew J. Riley, Edgar Lieberman
and A. Burnet Rhett; active: Messrs. H. F. Bar-
kerdling, H. J. O'Brien, Herbert Schachte, John
D. Rooney, P. K. Bremer and Louis Denaro. His
remains were laid to rest in St. Laurence Ceme-
tery, Charleston. ♦
Quoting from the tribute paid to Mr. Nohrden
by the mayor of Charleston: "Having known him
very intimately from earliest childhood, I feel
qualified to testify to his very strong personality
and high character. He inspired 2B>solute con-
fidence in those with whom he associated, and
this quality made him most useful and helpful
in our school life. His genuine interest in the
individual scholar, and advice cheerfully given
to the parents made him the friend of all the
homes he touched. He devoted himself most
unselfishly to the work as principal. He was most
efficient and resourceful in his plans and very
faithful in their execution. Our city has lost a
devoted, cultured educator and a splendid citi-
zen of the highest type, one who gave his best
for the good of our youth and no man can ever
render a nobler service."
Mr. Nohrden was a person of poetic instinct
and wrote much poetry and short stories under
the nom de plume of Martin Ma3mard. After
his decease Mrs. Nohrden collected a number
of poems and short stories and published them
in a neat little volume. One of the poems — "An
Ode" — which he had composed for the memorial
exercises at Magrnolia Cemetery, May 10, 191 5>
and which he read there is given herewith :
AN ODE
Winds of the South, blow soft today;
Whisper, ye branches over head,
A mindful people comes to pay
Sweet tribute to its. hero dead.
O'er their last camp, a sentry stands
Eternal guard. What spirits rise
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
41
To vitalize the nerveless hands?
What visions luminate the eyes?
Northward the guns flash out anew ;
Once more the gray forms rush ahead;
Kershaw, he sees, and Pettigrew;
Hampton with knightly Armistead.
Out where the East blends sea with sand
Sumter's dull mutterings begin;
Flouting a navy's wrath, ho! stand
Mitchell — and Elliott — Huguenin.
Far to the West a hill-crest flames;
Up the long slope a thin line crawls;
Hark, how the "rebel yell" proclaims
Marrigault's charge! See, brave Gist falls.
South, as the gun flecked islands lie,
Wagner's frail walls defy the blast.
See, where a barred flag flutters high
Hagood and Ripley standing fast.
North, East they struggled, West and South;
Their strength alone, not their spirit, failed;
Fire and sword, cold, famine, drouth
Threatened. Thru all their faith prevailed.
Here Carolina calls them home;
Here heads are bowed and quick tears start;
While un forgetting daughters come
With blooms to soothe her stricken heart.
Here grateful sons return to give
Thanks for their sacred heritage;
Proud in these glories that ever live.
Humble in this — their pilgrimage.
Winds of the South, blow far today
To the distant realm of Eternity;
Seek out the waiting clans in gray.
Bear them a sign how their children say
That we cherish this shrine as we will alway,
With reverence and love and loyalty.
Benjamin Franklin McKellar has for many
years been a fixture in the commercial affairs of
Greenwood, both as a merchant and banker. His
friends claim for him a genius as a financier, and
every undertaking with which his name has been
associated has had in it some of the elements of
real success.
Mr. McKellar was born at Greenwood, June 25,
1872, a son of Benjamin F. and Susan Eliza
(Giatham) McKellar. His grandfather was Major
Peter McKellar. The grandfather was a man of
wealth and great influence in his day, but the grand-
son, as a result of vicissitudes which frequently
overtook southern families in the past century, had
to start his own life poor. He received most of
his education by night school study. As a boy he
worked in a brick yard, also in a furniture store
for several years. About that time he was dele-
gated as trustee for an estate, and in its manage-
ment his business resourcefulness had its first real
opportunity. He pulled the estate out of debt, and
thereby also earned the confidence of the commer-
cial world. For twenty-two years Mr. McKellar
was a successful furniture merchant.
In 1910 he organized the People's Bank of Green-
wood, and has been president since the institution
was organized. At the beginning $69,900 was sub-
scribed to the capital stock of the bank and the
capital is now authorized at $500,000, with from
$200,000 to $300,000 paid in and doinp: over $1,500,000
worth of business. Mr. McKellar is also president
of the People's Bank of Hodges, South Carolina,
and president of the People's Trust Company.
He married Nora Victoria Summer, of Newberry,
South Carolina. Their only son, Benjamin F., Jr.,
is now deceased. He married Katie Edmonds, of
York, and at his death left four children, named
Katherine Victoria, Imogene, Alice Frances and
Susie Elies.
James Warren Widbman, a prominent lawyer
and present state senator from Clarendon County,
bears the same name as his honored father, who was
a ijrominent physician for many years at Due West,
South Carolina.
Dr. James Warren Wideman was born in Abbe-
ville County, September 16, 1846, was educated in
country schools, in Erskine College, and at the age
of seventeen became a member of Company A of
the First South Carolina Cavalry. After the war
he studied medicine, and was twice honored with
the office of president of the Abbeville County Medi-
cal Society. On January 23, 1868^ he married Emma
Lucretia Jordan. Their son, James Warren Wide-
man, was born at Due West, September 30, 1887,
and supplemented his advantages in the local schools
with the opportunities of Erskine College, from
which he graduated in 1908. He then taught one
year in Hickory Grove before entering the Law
School of the University of South Carolina. He
was admitted to the bar in 1911 and has since had a
growing general practice and reputation as a sound
and able lawyer at Manning. He was elected a
member of the State Senate in 1918 and elected a
member of the Democratic State Executive Com-
mittee in 1919. Mr. Wideman is a Mason and
Woodman of the World.
June II, 1914, he married Mary Louise Brockin-
ton, of Manning. They have a daughter, Ida
Louise, born in May, 1915.
John Jacob Seibels was born in Columbia, South
Carolina, August 3, 1871. After completing his
education ^at the University o^ South Cfarolina, he
entered hfs father's office, then and now known as
the insurance agency of E. W. Seibels & Son, one
of the oldest agencies in the South. At the age of
twenty, Mr. Seibels was appointed Special Agent
and Adjuster for the Southern States, for the Man-
chester Fire Assurance Company. In 1898 the
Southern Department was organized with his broth-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
er, Edwin G. Seibels, as Manager and John J. Seibels
as General Agent, the Glens Falls Insurance Com-
pany and the Pacific Fire Insurance Company of
New York then comprising the Department. Lat'er
the "Rochester-German/* "New Hampshire," "Amer-
ican of Newark," "Royal Exchange" of England,
"Colonial Fire Underwriters" of Hartford, the Cot-
ton Fire & Marine Underwriters, and others, also
entered the office under the same management. To-
day the office is one of the largest agencies in the
South, maintains offices in New York and London,
with an annual premium income,, both fire and ma-
rine, of $2,500,000. The general offices are on the
fourteenth and fifteenth floors of the Palmetto
Building, and a force of about seventy-five people is
maintained. The Palmetto Construction Company,
which owned and built the fifteen story Palmetto
Building, was organized by Mr. John J. Seibels,
president of the company, who especially planned
the two upper floors for the Southern Department
offices. In 1910 the South Carolina Insurance Com-
pany was organized, Mr. Seibels being its secretary.
Among other companies in which Mr. Seibels is
a dominant factor may be mentioned the Greenfield
Construction Company, the Consolidated Holding
Company, the City Investing Company, the Palmetto
Trust Company, and he is first vice president of
the Palmetto National Bank and Palmetto Trust
Company, and a director in numerous other com-
panies, including the Southern Railway, Carolina
Division, from 1902 to 1919.
Mr. Seibels is a son of Edwin Whipple and Marie
J. Seibels. His great-great-grandfather emigrated
from Elberfeldt, Germany, to Charleston, South
Carolina in 1760. His great-great-grandmother was
Sarah Temple, daughter of William Temple, brother
of Sir John Temple of England. Mr. Seibels is a
democrat in politics, a Master Mason, member of
the Chi Phi Fraternity, Columbia Club, Ridgewood
Club and a member of Trinity Church, Columbia.
Mr. Seibels was married April 25, 1900, to Miss
Bertha Willingham, oldest daughter of Calder Bay-
nard and Lila Ross Willingham, of Macon, Georgia.
Her great-great-grandfather, Thomas Henry Wil-
Hngham, came to Charleston in 1790 from Willing-
ham Hall, Market Rasen, present seat of the Wil-
lingham family in England. His son, Thomas,
married Phoebe Sarah Lawton. Her great-uncle.
Ephraim M. Baynard, is referred to as the chief
founder and benefactor of the College of Charles-
ton. The Ross family came from Scotland to Vir-
ginia and Mrs. Seibels great-grandfather, Luke Ross,
moved to Macon, Georgia, from Williamston, North
Carolina, in 1821. Mr. and Mrs. Seibels have two
children. Calder Willingham and Mary Ross Sei-
bels, these children being the fotirth generation to
live in the old Seibels home, which is still occu-
pied by the Seibels family, and which was built in
1790.
James Monroe Walker. The talents of a good
lawyer turned to the business of life insurance nave
brought James Monroe Walker through successive
responsibilities, beginning as solicitor, until he is
now assistant general manager and associate counsel
of the Carolina Life Insurance Company of Co-
lumbia.
Mr. Walker, who was born in Colleton County,
June 5. 1879, combines the blood of several old and
prominent families of the state. His great-grand-
father, George Walker, came from England over a
century ago, and was a pioneer of Colleton County.
His son George became a Baptist minister, widely
known over several southern states. Rev. George
Walker was the father of I sham David Walker, who
for many years operated and lived on a fine planta-
tion in Colleton County. Isham David Walker mar-
ried Emma V. Hiers, a daughter of Jacob and Re-
becca Hiers. Jacob Hiers was of an old time plant-
ing family in Colleton County, and as a compara-
tively young man entered the Confederate army
and was killed in battle, giving his life for the
cause of the South.
James Monroe Walker grew up on the plantation
of his father, Isham David Walker, and acquired
his early education in the public schools of Colleton
County. He has to his credit three years of efficient
work as a teacher in the public schools of his home
county. At the age of twenty he began the study
of law in the office of Howell & Gruber. His pre-
ceptors were men of distinction and great learning,
leaders of the southern bar, the individuals of the
firm being Major M. P. Howell and Colonel W. B.
Gruber. Mr. Walker was admitted to the South
Carolina bar December 9, 1902, and for about ten
years was busily engaged in a growing practice,
both at Walterboro and St. Matthews.
He acquired his first practical knowledge of the
life insurance business as a solicitor and field agent
of the Carolina Life Insurance Company. He en-
tered the service of that company on September i,
1913. In volume and quality of business he quickly
showed his class even among older and more ex-
perienced men in the business. He was promoted
to assistant superintendent of the local agency at
Columbia and engaged in that work three years.
Then, in 1918, he was made superintendent of the
Charleston district and in February, 1919, was re-
turned to the home office at Columbia as assistant
general manager and associate cotmsel.
Aside from his record in helping to build up one
of South Carolina's most important business and
financial institutions, Mr. Walker had some part in
public affairs white he was a lawyer, representing
Colleton County in the State Legislature during the
sessions of 1905-06. A democrat he is primarily
interested in the promotion of clean politics in com-
munity and state. Mr. Walker is affiliated with the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Knights of
Pythias and is a member of the Baptist Church.
At Walterboro April 3, 1903, he married Susan
Annie Caldwell. She was also born in Collet on
County, daughter of Thomas H. and Susan A.
(Marsh) Caldwell, the Caldwells and Marshs having
been people of honorable distinction in Colleton and
other sections of South Carolina through several
generations. Mr. and Mrs. Walker have four chil-
dren: James Monroe, Jr., Leon Waldo, Thelma
Gertrude and David Thomas.
David William Galloway. Both by intellectual
talent and personal character David William Gallo-
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HISTORY OF. SOUTH CAROLINA
43
way is peculiarly fitted for success as a lawyer,
and the early years of his practice have justiriea
every promise entertained of a brilliant future. Mr.
Galloway's ambition is in the line with the best
traditions of the law. He from the first has re-
garded the law not as a trade but as a profession,
and it has signified for him, in the words of an
eminent jurist, **a mental and moral setting apart
from the multitude — s. priesthood of justice."
He was born in Dillon County, at that time Mar-
ion County, South Carolina, in 1889, son of James
S. and Mary Lou (Bethea) Galloway. The Gallo-
way ancestors came to this country from the north
of Ireland, and represented a hne sturdy stock
of people, especially identified with Marlboro County
and its improvement into one of the richest sec-
tions of the South. James S. Galloway was a Con-
federate soldier, servmg throughout the war in the
Twenty-Third South Carolina Infantry. This regi-
ment was a part of Lee's Army of Northern Vir-
ginia, and was almost constantly on duty in Vir-
ginia except for a period when engaged in the
V'icksburg campaign in Mississippi. James S. Gal-
loway enlisted as a private, became a commissioned
orticer of the Twenty-Third and no braver soldier
or more efficient officer served in the Confederate
armies, according to the tributes of his old army
comrades in arms. A bullet wound received in the
head in one battle was the ultimate cause of his
death, although he lived many years after the war
and was a successful planter in that part of Dillon
County originally a part of Marion, and he died
at his home there in 19 10.
Mary Lou Bethea, also deceased, was a member
of the prominent Bethea family of Marion, Marl-
boro and Dillon counties. This ancestry originated
in France and was established in Virginia in early
colonial times. The first Bethea to come to South
Carolina located in what is now Dillon County about
1746. The Betheas were extensive planters, many
of them have been soldiers, and many have appeared
as prominent figures in public and political affairs.
David William Galloway has always expressed a
great debt to the influence of his mother, who was
a woman of great nobility of heart and mind, and
exceedingly charitable. Mr. Galloway was educated
in Wofford College at Spartanburg and in the Uni-
versity of South Carolina. He finished his law
course in the latter school in 1913, and in the same
year was admitted to the bar. He began practice
at HartsviUe in Darlington County,, and in 1914 was
elected magistrate of HartsviUe, filling that office
for two years in addition to his general practice:
His talents as a lawyer plainly called for a larger
field, and he finally abandoned his growing busi-
ness at HartsviUe and established himself at Co-
lumbia in November, 1919. Mr. Galloway is a
thorough student, and much of his success is due
to the conscientious and thorough manner with
which he undertakes every important commission
assigned to him.
He is a member of the Methodist Church, and
fraternally is affiliated with the Masons, Knights
of Pythias, Odd Fellows and Woodmen of the
World. He married Miss Lois Shores, of Spartan-
burg. Their three children are David William, Jr.,
Mary Shores and Roslyn.
Jerome P. Chase, Sr., was one of the leading
business men of Florence. He was bom in Ten-
nessee, July 28, 1838. He received most of his edu-
cation at Washington, D. C, and at the age of
twenty-one became a telegraph operator in South
Carolina. During the war he was part of the time
a soldier and afterwards a military telegraph op-
erator for the Confederate Government and finally
served for ij^ years in the Quartermaster's Depart-
ment. After the war he became a Florence mer-
chant but later engaged in the real estate and in-
surance business and becaime officially interested in
nearly all local business enterprises. He was elected
to the Legislature in 1878 and also served as mayor
of Florence. He married in 1866 Miss Hattie Mc-
Leod.
Jerome P. Chase, Jr., was born in Florence, May
13, 1872. He was educated in the public schools
and Wofford College and for several years was
associated with the electric light plant at Florence,
built by his father. He managed the company
through the period of its difficulties and sold out
the business m 1904. Since that date he has been
engaged in the real estate and insurance business.
He is manager and treasurer of the Chase Land &
Improvement Company owned by the Chase family,
and is a director of the Bank of Florence.
Edwin Eugene Brunson has spent most of his
life in and around Florence, was reared on a farm,
and for the past ten years has been one of the
leading real estate men of the city.
He was born October 4, 1884, a son of Robert
C. and Anna (Phinney) Brunson. His father was
a farmer. He received the advantages of private
and country schools, attended the University of
South Carolina three years, and in 1910 entered the
real estate business. He is member of the well
known firm Lucas & Brunson of Florence. Mr.
Brunson is president of the Pinewood Club and is
present city tax assessor of Florence. He is un-
married.
James Calvin Hemphill. The Hemphill family
of old Abbeville district has furnished many dis-
tinguished names to South Carolina. One of the
present generation is James Calvin Hemphill, of
Greenwood, formerly a part of old Abbeville County,
and he is earning high reputation for himself in
the profession of architecture.
He was born at Abbeville in 1889, a son of Robert
Reid and Eugenia Cornelia (Taylor) Hemphill. His
grandfather was Rev. William Reid Hemphill, for
many years pastor of the Associate Reformed Pres-
b^erian Church at Cedar Springs in Abbeville
CTounty. An uncle of James C. Hemphill is Major
J. C. Hemphill, who was formerly editor of the
Charleston News and Courier, the Charlotte Ob-
server and the Richmond Times Dispatch. He is
now editor of the Spartanburg Journal.
Robert Reid Hemphill, father of the Greenwood
architect, was a Confederate soldier in Orr's Ri^s.
He played a creditable part in the war and at W^
end of the reconstruction period was a member of
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
the noted Wallace House of 1876. For some years
he was editor of the Abbeville Medium, was mem-
ber of the State Senate from Abbeville County, and
for fourteen years clerk of the South Carolina
Senate. He is now deceased.
James Calvin Hemphill acquired a liberal educa-
tion, attending the College of Charleston two years.
He studied architecture in Boston, taking a short
course in Harvard University and another course
with the Boston Architectural Club. He established
himself in practice at Greenwood in 19 13, and the
past five years have been exceedingly bilsy and have
presented many opportunities for him to prove his
skill and develop it. H^ was fortunate in selecting
Greenwood as his home, since it is one of thi
wealthiest and fastest growing cities in South Caro-
lina. Mr, Hemphill has designed and superintended
the construction of several public and private build-
ings, the most recent being the Abbeville County
Memorial Hospital at Abbeville and the addition to
the Greenwood Hospital. He is also architect of
the fine modern residences of C. C. Wharton, Dr.
W. A. Barnett, W. H. Mays, and J. B Walton, in
Greenwood
Mr. Hemphill is a member of the South Carolina
Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
In August, 1919, he married Miss Milwec Davis,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Davis of Greenwood.
Mrs. Hemphill became well known over the state
through her work as an organizer for the State
Sunday School Association.
William James Brown for over a quarter of a
century has been one of the strong and resourceful
men in the financial and business affairs of Florence,
and has lent his influence and help readily to every
movement for the community's advancement and
welfare.
He was born in Florence County October 30, 1858,
and has lived in the City of Florence since 1869.
He had to be satisfied with the meager advantages
offered by the private schools of the impoverished
period following the war. As a boy he began earn-
ing his. living as clerk in stores, and from 1887 to
1892 was one of the independent merchants of
Florence.
In 1892 Mr. Brown was one of the organizers of
the Bank of Florence, served it many years as
cashier and is now president. He has also been
secretary and treasurer since organization of the
Florence Gas Company, and was similarly officially
identified with several building and loan associations.
Mr. Brown served as alderman of Florence from
1889 to 1893, and for three years was mayor of the
city. He has long been prominent in the Baptist
Church, and for twenty-eight years has been treas-
urer of the church at Florence. October 11, 1881,
he married Miss Anna E. Mouzon, of Charleston.
Six childrea were born to their marriage. The two
now living are: Gedney M., cashier of the Bank
of Florence, and Leroy King, assistant cashier in
the bank. Charles Seignious, who was accidentally
killed on the railroad in his automobile December
25, 1919, was second assistant cashier of the bank,
yhis youngest son during the war was in the Sani-
tary Department of the Eighty-First Division with
the Expeditionary Forces in France. The three
oldest children of Mr. and Mrs. Brown are also
deceased. They were : William James, Jr., who died
at the age of twenty; Mattie Seignious, who
died when five years old; and Furman Evans, who
died at the age of fifteen months.
Allard Henry Gasque, who represents old French
Huguenot stock in South Carolina, has devoted his
active life to educational affairs and for fifteen years
has been busily directing the public school system
of Lawrence County in the capacity *of county su-
perintendent.
He was born in Florence County March 8, 1873,
son of Wesley and Martha (Kirton) Gasque. His
father was a merchant and planter. The son was
educated in the public schools and as a young man
before going to college taught school three years in
some of the country districts of Florence County.
He was graduated from the University of South
Carolina in 1901, and the following year was prin-
cipal of the Waverly School. He then took a year
of post-graduate work and in 1902 was chosen
county superintendent of education, beginning his
first term in January, 1903. He was elected five
times in succession for two year terms, without op-
position, and in 1916 was elected for a four year
term, receiving a large majority over two rival can-
didates.
Mr. Gasque is well known among South Carolina
educatprs and is a former president of the South
Carolina Teachers' Association. He has been a
member of the State Executive Committee of the
democratic party for eight years and chairman of
the city democratic organization at Florence six
years. He is a Mason, Knight of Pythias, and a
past state counsellor and national representative of
the Junior Order United American Mechanics. His
religious connection is with the Baptist Church. He
married, March 5, 1908, Bessie Hawley, of Rich-
land County. They have three children, Martha
Elizabeth, Doris and John Allard.
John deSaussure Gilland, a prominent and well
known attorney of Florence, has been in practice
in that city for the past five years and is at this
time acting city recorder.
He was born in Kingstree, South Carolina, No-
vember 3, 1883, a son of Thomas McDowell and
Louise (Brockington) Gilland. His father was also
an attorney, was educated in public schools, and
took both his academic and law courses in the Uni-
versity of South Carolina. Mr. Gilland while in
school and university became well known in ath-
letic circles, and after leaving university was for
three years a professional baseball player. He be-
gan the practice of law at Kingstree in 1909 and
from that city moved to Florence in 1914. He has
been admitted to practice in both the State and
Federal courts.
April 22, 1913, he married Jane Allen. Their
three children are J. D., Jr., Ruth Allen and Louise.
John Wilbur Hicks, member of the prominent
Florence law firm of Arrowsmith, Muldrow, Bridges
& Hicks, is a native of South Carolina hut finished
his legal education in Chicago.
He was born in Florence County, March 24, 1885,
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THE NEW YuliK
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
a son of Elijah Myers and Elizabeth C. (Welch)
Hicks. His father was a minister of the Baptist
Church. Mr. Hicks was educated in public schools,
attended the Orangeburg Collegiate Institute until
1899, and from 1900 to 1904 was a student of the
Welsh Neck High School. He graduated A. B.
from Furman University in 1909, and then entered
the law department of the University of Chicago.
From this institution he received the degree J. D.,
Juris Doctor, in December, 191 1. On returning to
South Carolina Mr. Hicks was employed in the real
cstete department of the Atlantic Coast Line Rail-
way, on business connected with the Interstate Com-
merce Commission, until the following May, when
he was admitted to the bar and has smce been en-
gaged in general practice as a member of the firm
above noted.
Mr. Hicks is a member of the Phi Psi college fra-
ternity. He is also affiliated with the Junior Order
United American Mechanics and is a thirty-second
degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner. He be-
longs to the Baptist Church.
Philip H. Arrowsmith is senior member of one
of the prominent law firms in eastern South Caro-
lina, that of Arrowsmith, Muldrow, Bridges & Hicks
at Florence.
Mr. Arrowsmith, who was formerly a lawyer at
Lake City, was born at Winnsboro, South Carolina,
August 8, 1888, a son of Frances H. and Louise
(Heller) Arrowsmith. His father was a hotel man.
The son attended the public schools of Atlanta,
Georgia, took his literary course in Trinity College
at Durham, North Carolina, and in 191 1 graduated
from the law department of the University of South
Carolina. Soon after being admitted to the bar he
opened his office at Lake City and handled his
clientele and business at that point from 191 1 to
1919, when he removed to Florence.
July 30, 1912, he married Helen Thames, of Man-
ning, South Carolina. They have two sons, Mitchell
Heller and Philip Heller, Jr.
William H. Malloy has been an active business
man of Florence for many years, though during the
past twenty years his business abilities have been
required almost altogether by the city. He has held
the office of mayor or city treasurer for an aggregate
of seventeen years.
Mr. Malloy was bom at Cheraw, South Carolina,
July 30, 1859, a son of Dr. A. and Henrietta (Coit)
Malloy, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. He received his
early education in common schools and the Cheraw
Academy, gained his early business experience in
Cheraw, and in 189 1 removed to Florence. He was
bookkeeper for one of the local firms several years,
traveled in Texas one year, and then engaged in
business as a merchandise broker at Florence. He
was elected mayor of the city in 1896 and held that
office for six years, until he felt obliged to resign to
look after his private affairs. In 1908 he was first
elected city treasurer and by repeated re-election
annually he has filled that office to the present time.
Nearly all the improvements which make a modern
city of Florence have been instituted and carried
out during his official connection as mayor or
treasurer.
Mr. Malloy was for a number of years deacon of
the Presbyterian Church at Cheraw. He first mar-
ried Kate Wilson in 1885. January 28, .1892, he
married Hannah Pawley Waring.
Henry Edwards Davis was admitted to the bar
in 1904, is member of the law firm Willcox & Will-
cox at Florence, and is division counsel for the
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad.
Mr. Davis, who has earned his high place in the
South Carolina bar by unremitting industry and hard
study, was born at Gourdin, South Carolina, October
4, 1879, a son of James Edwards and Emma W.
(Chandler) Davis. He grew up on his father's farm
in Williamsburg County, attended local schools, and
graduated in June, 1902, from the Presbyterian Col-
lege of South Carolina. The next fall he entered the
law department of the University of South Carolina
and continued his studies there until January, 1904.
He was then in the office of Associate Justice C.
A. Woods at Marion until March, 1906, and since
then has been an associate of the law firm of Will-
cox & Willcox at Florence. Mr. Davis served four
years as city attorney of Florence finally resigning
that office. He is now and has been for two years
a member of the school board, and is a trustee of
the Presbyterian Colle^^e of South Carolina and an
elder of the Presbyterian Church.
September 26, 1906, he married Miss Lillian Er-
skine, of Anderson County. Mrs. Davis was a suc-
cessful teacher for five years until her marriage.
They have two daughters, Maud Elizabeth and Vir-
ginia Erskine.
Davis C. Durham, one of the prominent mer-
chants and citizens of Greenville, where he has had
a business career of forty years, is president and
treasurer and principal owner of Gilreath-Durham,
Inc., jewelers and silversmiths. This is now one of
the oldest business firms of that city with a con-
tinuous record, and is a landmark of the commercial
district. The principal lines carried are jewelry,
fine china and fancy goods.
Mr. Durham, who was born at Shelby, Cleveland
County, North Carolina, in 1867, is a member of
a very historic and prominent family. His parents
are David Noah and Esther Ruth (Coleman) Dur-
ham, the former now deceased. The original seat
of the Durham family was in England. The first
to come to America located in Virginia early in the
eighteenth century, and some of them later moved
to North Carolina. The City of Durham, North
Carolina, was named in honor of the family. The
name stands for the best there is in American
character and some of the Durhams have achieved
very high distinction. On the whole, they have been
lawyers, merchants, ministers and educators. David
Noah Durham and his son Davis C. as merchants
are rather exceptions to the general rule. David N.
Durham at the age of sixteen was fighting in the
uniform of a Confederate soldier, and in 1879, he
removed from Shelby, North Carolina, to Greenville,
South Carolina, and was a business man in that
city for many years.
A brother of Davis C. Durham is Dr. Charles L.
Durham of Cornell University. He was bom at
Shelby in 1872, received his Master of Arts degree
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• HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
from Furman University at Greenville in 1891, was
an instructor in that school until 1896, and in 1897
became instructor of Latin at Cornell University
and since 1909 has held the chair of Latin in that
great institution and is also secretary of the College
of Arts and Sciences. He is a man who is held in
the highest and most affectionate esteem by every
Cornell man (all of whom know **Bull Durham")
and for many years has been one of the most popular
members of the university's staff. His public spirit
is as notable as his classic scholarship. During the
war with Germany he devoted much of his time to
speaking for the Liberty Loan and other war meas-
ures throughout the East and Middle West. Doctor
Durham is well known at Greenville, where he spent
most of his boyhood and early manhood.
Davis C. Durham, who was born » at Shelby in
Cleveland County, North Carolina, in 1867, acquired
his early education there. Shelby is a town notable
for many prominent characters who were born and
reared there and attended the same school. Among
them are Thomas Dixon, the author and lecturer,
and his brothers, Rev. A. C. and Rev. Frank Dixon,
and also the Webbs, two prominent jurists of North
Carolina. Davis C. Durham is a contemporary of
some of these famous people who once lived in
Shelby. After coming to Greenville Mr. Durham
attended Captain Patrick's Military School.
His father as noted above put on a Confederate
uniform at the age of sixteen. At a similar age
Davis C. Durham, the country being then at peace
and no incentive to fire a boy's military ambition,
enlisted in the army of commercial travelers, and
was one of the first to travel out of Greenville for
a Greenville concern. He became known as the
"boy drummer" and for a number of years repre-
sented his firm on the road in South Carolina and
also portions of North Carolina and Georgia. Mr.
Durham was always closely connected with all activi-
ties of the traveling men and is a member of the
Travelers Protective Association, served as presi-
dent of his local post and later as state president
Counting his youthful experience as a clerk and
traveling salesman he has been constantly in business
at Greenville for forty years, and in the same section
of Main Street where his present business is located.
This business has been built up on character and
through it Mr. Durham has come to realize the
ideals of a man's responsibilities and service to the
world at large.
Mr. Durham is a member of the First Baptist
Church and for fifteen or twenty years was super-
intendent of the Sunday School of this fine old
church. Now and for a number of years he has
been giving much attention to work and enlargement
of the Greenville Woman's College, being vice presi-
dent of the Board of Trustees and chairman of the
Executive Committee of this institution. He is also
a member of the Board of Education of the Baptist
State Convention of South Carolina.
For a long number of years he was president of
the Merchants Association of Greenville and was
one of the founders of the Chamber of Commerce.
He was chairman of the Traffic Bureau of the
Chamber of Commerce and represented that body in
behalf of equitable freight rates for Greenville at
various sessions of the State Railroad Commission
and the Interstate Commerce Commission, attending
many meetings held with the railroad ofiicials of the
South. Mr. Durham is credited with having brought
about adjustment of freight rates that have played
a most important part in making Greenville the
commercial center that it is today. Mr. Durham
served as a member of the Greenville Coimty Coun-
cil of Defense during the war and was one of the
three or four members of that body who took upon
themselves the great bulk of its work and achieve-
ment He was also one of the prime movers in
the matter of building the Masonic Temple at
Greenville, and is president and treasurer of the
Masonic Temple Company and manager of their
handsome ofiice building on South Main Street
Mr. Durham was happily married early in his
business career. His wife was formerly Miss Stella
Louise Ferris of Spencer, Tioga County, New York.
A graduate of the New England Conservatory of
Music and a finished musician, she came to Green-
ville as head of the voice department of the Green-
ville Woman's College.
Richard Durham, son of Mr. and Mrs. Davis C.
Durham, earned distinction as a soldier in France.
He is a graduate of Furman University and was
a student at Cornell University when in June, 191 7,
he volunteered in the American Field Service. This
was a volunteer organization of American young
college men for service under the French govern-
ment He paid all his own expenses while with the
field service. He was in the first section of the
volunteers to be transferred to the American Expe-
ditionary Forces. The unit to which he belonged
was decorated three times by the general of the
division and once by General Gouraud of the Fourth
French Army. Richard Durham participated in
some of the most terrific warfare, practically
throughout the campaign of 1918. He was in the
Aisne retreat from May 27 to June 4» »" the third
battle of the Somme August 10 to 23, in the second
battle of the Marne from September 26 to November
6, and through special gallantry during the Aisne
attack at Soissons in June, IQ18, he was cited and
decorated with the French Croix de Guerre. He
was still in France in the spring of 1919-
B. F. Bedingfield who died December 8, 1919* had
been a resident of Spartanburg thirty years, and
while he began his career without special resources
he achieved a place of dignity, influence and real
success.
Mr. Bedingfield was born on a plantation in Hen-
derson County, North Carolina, October 3. 1854*
oldest of the ten children of George and Nancy
(Bayne) Bedingfield of the same county. Five of
those children are still living, one daughter being a
resident of Greenville, South Carolina.
B. F. Bedingfield left home at the age of fourteen,
and during a sojourn in Texas found emplojrment
as a farm hand. He largely educated himself and
early learned the lessons of self reliance. For sev-
eral years he was a farmer in Arkansas, and then
returned east and locating at Greenville, South Caro-
lina, engaged in the grocery business. From there
he removed to Spartanburg, and long before his
death had acquired a competency by his good busi-
ness judgment. He was highly thought of in the
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
47
community, was esteemed for his upright Christian
life and character. For many years he was active
in the Methodist Church, and distinguished him-
self lo^ his public spirit in local affairs, and was
affiliated with the Woodmen of the World, the
Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows.
Mr. Bedingfield married for his first wife Miss
D<^ly Huff of Spartanburg. By that marriage he
had one son, Frank, now a resident of Columbia,
who married Miss Jeffords of Florence, a gradu-
ate of Winthrop College. B. F. Bedingfield married
for his second wife Sally Neal of Lawrence.
Mr. Bedingfield is survived by his widow who
before her marriage to him was Mrs. Eunice Gil-
more Robbs, widow of Dr. James R. Robbs. The
only child of this union died in infancy. Mrs. Bed-
ingfield was the youngest of four children and was
bom in Chester County, April 27, 1864, daughter
of Charles and Vermilla (Osborn) Gilmore. Her
father's family came originally from Fitchburg,
Massachusetts, and for many years he was a planter
and died in 1887. Her mother died in 1900. Mrs.
Bcdingfield's oldest brother, J. E. Gilmore, died in
1918. Her sister, Alvinia, is married and living on
the old homestead. Mrs. Bedingfield is a well read
and cultured woman, enjoys a comfortable and com-
modious home in Spartanburg, and is an active mem-
ber of the Duncan Methodist Church.
Richard Ashe Meares, of the family of that name
in Wilmington, North Carolina, has bieen a resident
of South Carolina more than tnirty-five years. His
permanent home and chief interests have been in
Fairfield County.
Mr. Meares, who is a member of the Legislature
from Fairfield County and maintains a city home
for his family at Columbia, was born in New York
Cidr, July 4, 1858. He graduated from St. Stephen's
CoUege at Annandale, New York, in 1878, and in
the same year came South and studied law in the
famous law school of Judges Dick and Dillard at
Greensboro, North Carolina. He completed his
course in 1879, and for three years practiced at
Winston-Salem. In January, 1884, he established
his home at Ridgeway in Fairfield County, where
after a few years he retired from the practice of
his profession in favor of his farming and manu-
facturing interests.
Mr. Meares first came into public note when he
served as a member of the Constitutional Conven-
tion in 1895. In 1896 he was elected a member of
the House of Representatives, serving during the
sessions of 1897-98, and was again chosen to that
body in 1910 for the sessions of 191 1- 12, and in
1918, for the third time, was elected to serve his
constituency of Fairfield County. He has been
one of the leaders in the legislative program adopted
by the sessions of 1919-20. In the last Legislature
he was a member of the committee on banking and
insurance and other important committees.
Mr. Meares is a prominent layman of the Protes-
tant Episcopal Church. He was a member of the
delegation of deputies from the Diocese of South
Carolina to the General Convention at Detroit, in
October, 1919.
Mr. Meares married Miss Louise Woodward Pal-
mer, of Ridgeway, in 1883. Their son. Gaston
Meares, was a corporal in Company M of the Three
Hundred and Twenty-first Infantry in the Eighty-
First or Wildcat Division, and saw several months
of active service in France.
Mancil James Owings. The standing and suc-
cess achieved by Mr. Owings in business affairs in
his native County of Laurens rates him as one of
the men of exceptional enterprise, thorough integrity
and all around ability. Mr. Owings had little to
start with as a young man, and his extensive ac-
cumulations of business interests stand as a jus-
tified reward of his services and abilities.
He was born on a farm May 5, 1865, ^a son of
Benjamin Lewis and Jane (Smith) Owmgs, also
natives of Laurens County, and a grandson of Man-
cil James and Susan Owings, the former also a
native of Laurens County. His maternal grand-
parents were Franklin and Frances Smith, of the
same county. Benjamin L. Owings spent his active
life as a farmer and was also a Confederate sol-
dier. He lived to the age of seventy-four, while
his wife died at sixty-four. She was a Methodist
and he a Baptist.
Their family of five daughters and two sons all
grew up on the old farm, and as a farm boy Mancil
James Owings attended the district schools. At the
age of eighteen he went to the home of his uncle,
John R. Owings, and at the age of twenty-two opened
a country store on his uncle's farm. He conducted
it for four years, until the death of his uncle. He
then came to Laurens and became a competitor with
old established merchants. He pushed his business
with commendable energy and his affairs have been
growing rapidly since then. In 1913 he organized the
Farmers National Bank and became its president,
and has made that institution one of the solidest in
Laurens County. He has also bought stock in other
banks and corporations and has been inclined to put
most of his profits in farm lands. He is now one
of the largest farm land owners, in the county, and
has done much to promote the agricultural welfare
of his section.
Mr. Owings, who has never married, is an active
and public spirited citizen, though he has never
sought a public ofllice. He is a trustee of the Baptist
Church, a trustee of Greenville Female College, and
is affiliated with the Masonic Order and Knights of
Pythias.
Samuel Craig Byrd, D. D., president of the Chi-
cora College for Women at Columbia, has for a quar-
ter of a century been distinguished by his work and
leadership in church and educational affairs. With
the exception of a few years while he was pastor of
Presbyterian churches his career has been spent in
his native state of South Carolina.
He was born at Laurens October 24, 1868, a son of
Capt. Jonathan Downs and Evelyn (Craig) Byrd. He
acquired a liberal education, graduating with the
A. B. degree from the Presb)rterian College of
South Carolina at Clinton in 1889 and receiving
his Master of Arts degree from the same institution
in 1892. In the latter year he also graduated from
the Columbia Theological Seminary. He received
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
his Doctor of Divinity degree from the Presb3rterian
College in 1906.
During 1892-93 he was tutor of Hebrew in the
Columbia Theological Seminary and left that work
to become assistant pastor of the First Presbyterian
Church of New Orleans. In 1894 he was ordained to
the Presbyterian ministry and until 1897 was pas-
tor of Lafayette Church in New Orleans.
He then returned to Columbia and from 1898 to
1902 was adjunct professor in the chair of English
Bible, and again tutor of Hebrew in the Theologfical
Seminary. In the meantime he was managing edi-
tor of the Presbyterian Quarterly and the Religious
Outlook in Columbia in 1898-99 and then gave all his
time to his duties as a member of the faculty of the
Theological Seminary until 1902. From 1903 to 1906
he was pastor of the Scion Church of Winnsboro,
South Carolina, and in 1906 was called to his duties
as president of Chicora College at Greenville, South
' Carolina. July i, 1915, this institution was consoli-
dated with the College for Women at Columbia, and
the educational work of the combined colleges has
since been continued at Columbia under the name of
Chicora College for Women, with Doctor Byrd as
president.
Doctor Byrd was also a trustee of the Presbyte-
rian College of South Carolina, serving for many
years as president of the board, during the establish-
ment of the college, and the growth and success at-
tained reflects in no small degree the result of his
personal efforts and labor. He is a Royal Arch
Mason, a Knight of P3rthias, and a member of the
Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.
October 3, 1893, he married Wilhelmina Law Coz-
by, of Newberry and their only son, James Cozby
Byrd, is now a junior student in the University of
Pennsylvania.
Isaiah Davis Durham, M. D., is son of Ed-
mund Durham and Mary Lee of the distinguished
family of Robert E. Lee and a grandson of
Richard Durham, who married Jane Davis, a near
relative of President Jefferson Davis. The Durhams
are of English ancestry and many prominent mem-
bers of the family have their home in North Caro-
lina, where the City of Durham commemorates
them. The Durhams in the different generations
have been distinguished as forceful business men
and equally prominent in public and professional
affairs.
Dr. I. D. Durham was a physician, dentist, minis-
ter and journalist and was publishing the Confed-
erate Baptist, a weekly newspaper in Columbia
when that city was occupied and burned bv« Gen-
eral Sherman's army. A brother of I. D. Durham
was the late Dr. A. K. Durham, a life-long minister
of the Baptist Church, and one of the distinguished
men of that denomination in South Carolina. He
was one of the founders of the present Baptist
Courier, and was also actively identified with edu-
cational work for many years.
Dr. I. D. Durham was born in 1832, in Cleveland
County, North Carolina. He did not have many .
advantages of an education in early life but he be-
gan preaching at the early age of seventeen and by
help from the churches and his own exertions he
attended Furman University for several 7ears. He
graduated from the Medical College of Pennsyl-
vania at Philadelphia in 1859 ^^*^ honors.
Returning home he practiced his profession very
successfully for years. He was a Baptist minister
of note and a very forceful and magnetic orator
and many churches and associations were organized
by him. He was quite an original and independent
character and was possessed of his mountaineer and
liberty loving traits.
He was very determined and conscientious, so
much so that he left North Carolina before he
reached his majority, because he opposed the prin-
ciple of paying poll tax. When it became law in
South Carolina he still opposed the principle and
claimed that it was unconstitutional and a badg^e
of slavery. He would not pay the tax himself nor
would he allow his friends to do so, cons^uently
he had several trials in court and in one case served
one day in Aiken County Jail.
He was married in 1855 to Miss Mary Anne Smith,
of Laurens County. South Carolina, who died in
1866. Of this marriage only one son survived, Wil-
liam Davis Durham. In 1869 he was married to
Miss Elizabeth M. Knotts of Lexington County,
South Carolina.
Doctor Durham took a live, independent and con-
scientious interest in everything that pertained to
the welfare of his country, and in 1SB2 was green-
back candidate for superintendent of education. He
was a most devoted man to his family and friends.
He died in 1890.
Dr. William Davis Durham, only child of Dr.
Isaiah Davis Durham, was born in 1859, at Winns-
boro, South Carolina. A physician and dentist, he
graduated in medicine at the Augusta Medical Col-
lege, Augusta, Georgia, in 1881. The same year
he married Miss Ida Norris of Batesburg, South
Carolina, who lived only a year. In 1885 he was
married to Miss Lula McLane of Fairfield County,
South Carolina, a daughter of John Hendrix Mc-
Lane of Columbia, South Carolina. John Hendrix
McLane a generation ago was one of the leading:
public characters of the state. He filled various
public offices and was a leader of the reform move-
ment in national politics beginning about 1879. At
one time he was greenback candidate for governor.
Dr. W. D. Durham was a very affable man with
high and noble ideals and quite a success in his pro-
fessions. He practiced medicine and dentistry
chieflv in Aiken County. He died in 1913, leaving
six children, four boys and two girls: Davis Mc-
Lane Durham, Isaiah Davis Durham, Robert Blak-
ley Durham^ Virgil Cla3rton Durham, Ruby Eliza-
beth Durham and Mary Lee Durham.
Davis McLane Durham was born in 1886, in Aiken
Counhr, South Carolina. A very energetic and ap-
plicable business man of good moral stamina.
Dr. Isaiah Davis Durham, who was named for His
grandfather, was born in Orangeburg County, Sotitli
Carolina in 1889. While his professional career Yisls
been comparatively brief Dr. Durham has done jus-
tice to the noble record of his family and ancestors
in the history and affairs of South Carolina. Re-
ceiving a good common school education he gradu-
ated in medicine in 1913 from the University of
Georgia, at Augusta, Geor^a. Before movingr to
his present home in Columbia, South Carolina, sev-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
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cral months ago, he practiced his profession in New
Brookland and surrounding territoiy. He has built
a large general practice in medicine and surgery
and a reputation for skill and efficiency that piakes
him a valuable asset to his community. He was
married to Miss Pauline M. Whitehead of Augusta,
Georgia. Their two children are William Vernon
and Isaiah Davis, Jr.
Dr. Robert Blakley Durham was born in Orange-
burg County, South Carolina, in 1892. Receiving a
good common school education he graduated in
medicine from the University of Georgia, at Au-
gusta, Georgia, in 1913. He practiced his profes-
sion at Perry, South Carolina, until moving to Co-
lumbia, in 1917. He volunteered in the medical
corps, June 5, 1917, and wasi given a commission
of first lieutenant. He was called to report for
duty August 20, 1917. On September 6, 1917, he
sailed for France. Doctor Durham served twent)r-
Oiree months in France with the Twenty-Sixth Di-
vision, that saw about ten months in the trenches,
being one of the .first American divisions to Europe.
He took part in all major engagements, namely, St.
Mihiel, Meuse- Argonne, Chateau Thierry, etc. Dur-
ing service with the Twenty-Sixth Division he was
battalion surgeon of the One Hundred and First In-
fantry and later was given command of the One
Hundred and Second Ambulance Company. Dr.
R. B. Durham was promoted to captain in February,
1919. While in France he attended the University
of Bordeaux for four months, taking special courses
in surgery. He was discharged August 4, 1919.
Doctor Durham is now practicing his profession in
G)lumbia, South Carolina.
Virgil Clayton Durban^ was born in Orangeburg
County in 1894. He received a common school edu-
cation. On July 30, 1917, he volunteered as a pri-
\'atc in Major Johnson's Battalion of Engineers of
South Carolina, in Company B, which was later a
part of the One Hundred and Seventeenth Engineers
of the Forty-Second Division. He sailed for Prance,
October, 191 7, served about nineteen months over-
seas. He was in action nine months and was en-
gaged in all important battles which the Americans
fought, namely, St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne, Chateau
Thierry. Virgil Clayton Durham received his dis-
charge April 19, 1919.
These two young men were gallant soldiers and
faithfully upheld the traditions of their ancestors.
Joseph Brown Felton had been continuously a
teacher and school administrator in Anderson
County for nineteen years, and was serving in his
third consecutive term as county superintendent
when he was appointed State Agent for Colored
Schools in South Carolina, October i, 1919, with
headquarters at Columbia.
Mr. Felton was bom in Anderson County, May
14. 1882, son of Joseph Bryant and Cinderella
(Brown) Felton. He acquired a good education,
graduating June 15, 1900, from the Patrick Military
Institute at Anderson. In addition to the literary
training he received there he had four years of
military instruction and has a practical knowledge
of military science and technique.
Mr. Felton began teaching in Anderson County
in the fall of 1900, and for eleven years was con-
Vol. v— 4
nected with local schools. In 1912 he was elected
county superintendent of education, and was re-
elected without opposition in 1914, and in 1916 re-
ceived a third term of four years with four opposing
candidates. Incidental to his primary work as
an educator Mr. Felton has maintained some farm-
ing interests for a number of years.
He has always been a stanch democrat and is
a member of the Baptist Church. Fraternally he
is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias at Town-
ville, being keeper of records and seal in I912, is
a member of the Improved Order of Red Men at
Anderson, serving as sachem for 1918, and is a
member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
At Townville December 29, 1901, Mr. Felton mar-
ried Miss Maggie Elizabeth Speares, daughter of
Joseph C. and Janie (Bruce) Speares. Her grand-
father, the Rev. Kit Speares, was a noted educator
of his day in northwestern South Carolina. He
spent practically his entire life in the schoolroom,
and many of the best business men of that section
received their training either in whole or in part
from him. One of his former pupils is Ex-Governor
Ansel. Mr. and Mrs. Fehon have five children :
Herbert Newton, Joseph Bruce, Andy Theodora,
Emmie Louese and Margaret Elizabeth.
Marvin Lamar Parler, M. D. While the scene
of his professional and other commendable activities
during the past twenty years has been Wedgefield
in Sumter County, Doctor Parler belongs to that
sturdy and successful family of Parlers who since
Revolutionary times have lived in the old Orange-
burg District. There were three French brothers
who came to America either with Rochambeau or
LaFayette to assist in the struggle for American
freedom. After the war they chose the Colonies
as their permanent home, and located in the old
Orangeburg District in the vicinity of the present
Town of Parler, which was named for the family.
The Parlers have lived continuously in that section
of Orangeburg County since 1790.
Doctor Parler was born there in 1879 and is a
son of Eugene M. Parler, a prominent merchant,
planter and land owner and a native of the same
vicinity.
Doctor Parler was educated in the public schools
of his neighborhood, also at Elloree, and attended
Furman University at Greenville. He studied medi-
cine in the Medical College of South Carolina at
Charleston, graduating with the class of 1900. In
the same year he located at Wedgefield, and has
achieved enviable rank as the leading physician and
surgeon of that rich and growing section of Sumter
County. He has been president of the Sumter
County Medical Society and is a member of the
State and American Medical Association.
Doctor Parler has been a leader in all local affairs,
and is a planter and owner of • substantial landed
interests at Wedgefield. He is a director of the
Commercial Bank & Trust Company of Sumter and
during the war was chairman of all the Liberty Loan
campaigns for Wedgefield and vicinity and also had
charge of the food conservation and was connected
with other measures incident to the war. He is a
Knight Templar, Mason and member of Omar
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Charleston, and he
and his wife are Baptists.
Doctor Parler married Miss Josie Piatt, daughter
of Rev. John B. and Celestia (Mims) Piatt. Her
father was a prominent minister of the South Caro-
lina Conference. Her mother was a daughter of
Thomas Mims of Charleston. .Doctor and Mrs.
Parler have two children: Mary Celestia and Mar-
vin Lamar, Jr.
Davib Duncan Wallace seems to have been
predestined for a teacher and writer. His parents
both made enviable reputations as teachers. His
father left his professorship in the Columbia Female
College after a few years for the freer life of
journalism. As founder and for many years the
editor of the Newberry Observer, he was one of
the most influential members of the South Carolina
press.
Dr. Wallace's mother, nee Miss Alice Amanda
Lomax, spent many years of her life before her
marriage on Wofford College campus in the home
of her maternal grandfather. Professor David Dun-
can. Her education at Barhamville was followed
by the regular work of the Wofford curriculum
under the guidance of her grandfather, and though
the rules of the college did not permit her to appear
in the classroom, they did not prevent the old
Professor of Greek from intimating to his boys that
he had a young lady privately studying the same
course with whose work their own did not always
compare favorably. To this day she can read her
Latin and Greek far better than any of her grand-
children after the most earnest preparation of the
day's lesson. She is a student whom it is never
safe to contradict on a matter of historical fact.
Professor Wallace's father was born in Laurens
County, near Mudlick Creek, just across the line
from Newberry, near the large brick country house
known as Belfast, which was purchased while he
was a boy by his father and still remains in the
family. His family was Baptist. He joined the
Methodist church on account of attending Woflford
College, from which he graduated in 187 1. The
Methodist remains the church connection of all his
branch of the family.
David Duncan Wallace was born in Columbia,
South Carolina, May 23, 1874. in the old Columbia
Female College, now the Colonia Hotel. The only
other child was a girl, who died in childhood. When
the boy was two years old his parents moved to
Newberry, where he lived until he left home for
college. He attended the Newberry Male Academy
and the preparatory department of Newberry Col-
lege. Entering the Freshman class of that institu-
tion, young Wallace, along with several other overly
youthful "town boys", threw away a year by devoting
himself more industriously to ringing the college
bell at hours not prescribed by the schedule, heaving
brickbats against classroom doors, and in other ways
plaguing the college authorities, from the white
haired old negro janitor to the President. His
father effectually corrected these flippant tendencies
by putting him at steady work in his printing office
for a year. The youth really valued an education,
and when the next October rolled round was quaking
with dread at the possibility of being denied the
privilege of re-entering college. From that moment
to the present he has never spent an idle week and
rarelv an idle day.
Taking up his work again at Newberry College,
he came under the influence of that noble Christian
gentleman Dr. George W. Holland, and that master
of class room instruction, Asbury Sumter Laird,
who as Professor of Latin gave an example of
thoroughness and inspiration in exact scholarly
work that constituted a valuable part of his pupils*
equipment for life. It was largely the inspiration of
Professor Laird's teaching that stirred him to the
efforts that won him the prize for the highest aver-
age on all work during the Freshman year.
Wofford College was a family tradition in the
Wallace home. At real sacrifice the parents sent
their son in 1891 to enter the Sophomore class of
the old college, where he graduated in 1894. Among
the honors conferred upon him by his college mates*
were the positions of intercollegiate debater, Foun-
der's Day orator, and editor-in-chief of the Wofford
College Joprnal.
Though the associations with his friends, particu-
larly of the Kappa Alpha fraternity, and the whole
life at Wofford were rich in inspiration, the influence
of the President, Dr. James H. Carlisle, stands out
as one of the most beneficent and potent forces in
his life. So profound was the conviction of morai
values received from that great teacher, supple-
menting the same influences from his parents, that
he has all his life perhaps underestimated material
values. From the influences at Wofford that helped
to make the man cannot be omitted the wonder fut
charm and intellectual stimulus of Dr. Henry Nelson
Snyder's teaching of English literature and the
stirring spiritual appeal of the preaching of Pro-
fessor, afterwards Bishop, John C. Kilgo.
After dabbling in law reading for a few weeks
the voung graduate decided on teaching as his life-
work. He studied English, Economics, and History
at Vanderbilt University for three years, 1894-6 and
1898-99. Turning more and more to History, he was
awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy with
that as his major in 1899. His published doctoral
thesis was on "The Constitutional History of South
Carolina from 1725 to I775-*'
Dr. Wallace had already taught English and His-
tory for the two years, 1896-8, in the Carlisle Fitting
School at Bamberg, South Carolina. Immediately
after taking his degree he entered upon his duties
as adjunct professor of History and Economics in
Wofford College, where he has worked ever since,
except for the half of the college year of 191 7- 18,
during which he gave advanced courses in American
History in the University of Michigan. Though
having a strong taste for practical affairs. Dr.
Wallace has never felt invitations or opportunities
to enter business or administrative positions as seri-
ous temptations, as his love for investigation and
teaching are so much greater as to prevent his
feeling that other things are in comparison really
worth while in terms of ultimate values.
Dr. Wallace has contributed largely to the daily,
weekly and magazine press on topics connected with
history and economics. In 191 5 he issued a volumin-
ous Life of Henry Laurens, with the fullest sketch
yet published of his distinguished son Lieutenant
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
51
G)lonel John Laurens.* Henry Laurens was the
largest national figure that South Carolina con-
tributed to the American Revolution. He touched
the life of the country in so many ways, social,
economic and political, during the last half of the
eighteenth century as to make his biography a large
part of the history of his times. The editor of the
.American Historical Review so valued the book, as
one "of such quite exceptional qualit/* that he sought
to secure a review of it by Sir George Otto Tre-
velyan, the foremost authority on that period; but
the aged scholar had ceased all composition except
his correspondence. Perhaps the last book notice
ever written by Earl Cromer was a long review of
the Laurens in the London Spectator, evincing the
great empire builder's profound interest in the story
of how British politicians of a former generation
had practiced the art of empire destruction.
The following is from a review in the Boston
Transcript of September i8, 1915:
"For this biography students of the Revolutionary
epoch have waited long. Nor is their expectation
disappointed now that, at last, the story of Henry
Laurens is adequately told An unusually
vivid portrait — a remarkable one, considering how
little anecdote, biography's "high light", is used.
.... The background of the picture is also clear.
We see the life of the southern American colonies;
its curious and picturesque mingling of primitive and
luxurious conditk)ns, its conflicting ideals — political
and industrial — ^before and after the Revolution. . . .
"Mr. Wallace throws much light upon several
mooted historical subjects, among them: The Con-
way Cabal, the French Alliance, the Wilkes Fund
dispute, the Deane-Lee affair."
Dr. Wallace's two- fold task in the Life of Laurens
was the difficult one of writing in one narrative both
the scholar's and the general reader's account of the
great South Carolina business man, planter, states-
man, and diplomat. How well he succeeded is testi-
fied by the fact that the most exacting historical
critics gave the work cordial approval, while a
journal of the popular appeal of the New York
World devoted an entire page to review and quota-
tions.
Dr. Wallace's interest in political science is only
second to his interest in history. In 1906 he pre-
pared a small volume. The Civil Government of
South Carolina and the United States, which has
been ever since the State adopted school text.*
Scholars in several other States have requested
permission to combine the national part of the book
with State treatments of their own commonwealth
governments.
A larger work published in 1916 is The Govern-
ment of England, Central, Local and Imperial.**
This as a straightforward, untechnical account of
the British ministerial system free from the his-
torical and legalistic lumber that so commonly repels
the general reader from a subject so important to
the citizens of any free country, or any country that
would be free. The Presbyterian Advance described
♦G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London.
♦Southern Publishing Company, Dallas, Texas.
**G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London.
it as "a fascinating book on government," while the
New York Tribune spoke of it as follows:
"Just as some of the best works on the govern-
ment of America have been written toy Britons and
Frenchmen, so some of the best on the British gov-
ernment have proceeded from American pens. ...
As a clear, concise, illuminating and convincing
analysis of the British system of government, and
an instructive and suggestive comparison of it with
the American, it has no superior and leaves little,
indeed, to be desired."
Dr. Wallace is at present planning work in some
important phases of Reconstruction history in South
Carolina. While Dr. Wallace is a Methodist who
values highly the special mission of his own church,
he entertains a broad tolerance towards all, not ex-
cepting those detestables of so many Evangelicals —
Catholics and Unitarians. A democrat by principle
as well as training, he takes a constant interest inr
state and national politics, so far as even to derive
a certain pleasure in acting as manager at a primary
election, attending a ward club meeting, or serving
as delegate to a Democratic County Convention. He
was an active worker for establishing the South
Carolina Industrial School for Boys, for which the
chief credit belongs to Mrs. Martha Orr Patterson.
He was for the first six years of the existence of
that institution a member of its Board of Trustees,
acting as Treasurer and later as Vice-president. He
was one of the first members of the State Board of
Charities and Corrections, and was elected President
of the Board upon the resignation of its first Presi-
dent. Dr. George B. Cromer.
Dr. Wallace's family life is blessed with a most
charming wife, who was Miss Sophie Willis Adam,
to whom he was married January 10, 1900, and four
interesting and promising children. Though his
chief form of recreation comes from contact with
Mother Earth in the vegetable garden, the diversions
that he likes best are mountain tramping and
swimming.
Dr. Wallace is above all else a teacher, but a
teacher who is in constant touch with the great
living world. He has been rewarded by the esteem
and affection of his students.
Charles A. Jefferies, M. D. For a number of
years Doctor Jefferies had a large and busy prac-
tice in his home community of Gaffney, and since
surrendering his professional interests for the sake
of his health he has had an almost equally strenu-
ous career looking after some extensive business
affairs, particularly as a land owner, farmer and
druggist.
Doctor Jefferies, who is one of the potent factors
in the growth and upbuilding of Gaffney and of the
surrounding territory, belongs to one of the oldest
families in that section of the state. He was born
seven miles southeast of the present city of Gaffney,
in what was then Union, now Cherokee, County in
1868, a son of William and Ramath (Hames) Jef-
feries. The Jefferies family came originally from
England. In England one of the most famous of
the family, spelling his name somewhat differently,
was the great jurist and statesman Jeffreys. The
American branch of the family settled in Virginia,
and prior to the Revolutionary war established
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
homes in what is now Cherokee County, South
Carolina.
Doctor JeflFeries is also a descendant of the Curry
family, his father's mother having been a Curry.
Through this line his great-great-grandfather was
Nicholas Curry, a soldier in the battle of King's
Mountain. The Currys are of Scotch origin, and,
coming from Virginia to South Carolina, settled in
the upper part of Union County before the Revo-
lutionary war.
William JefiFeries, father of Doctor JeflFeries, was
a prominent South Carolinian. He was born in the
same vicinity as his son, spent his life there, and
died in 1906. He owned large parcels of land, was
a planter, and had many business interests in GaflF-
ney and other places. He was chosen to represent
Union County In the State Legislature as early as
1858, when only twenty-one years of age. He was
a Confederate soldier throughout the war, and had
an active part in reconstruction. He was a mem-
ber of the famous Wallace House of 1876. He was
the first state senator from the new county of
Cherokee after its organization in 1897. Many
years prior to that he was one of the first to advo-
cate the creation of a new county. Active in the
Methodist Church, he was prominent in Sunday
school work. He was one of the builders of the
first cotton mill at GaflFney.
Charles A. JeflFeries graduated from WoflFord Col-
lege at Spartanburg in 1887 and took his medical
work in Tulane University at New Orleans, where
he graduated in 1892. He first oracticed in his
home community and in 1896 located at GaflFney.
Several years ago his arduous duties resulted in a
threatened breakdown of his health, and he gave
up medical practice and has since been entirely
devoted to his business and farming interests.
These interests alone constitute him one of the most
useful men of Cherokee County. He is principal
owner of the Cherokee Drug Company in GaflFney,
a director of the First National Bank, and is chair-
man of the Board of Directors of the American
State Bank at GaflFney, which was org^anized in
1919. He is also one of the most extensive cotton
planters in the state and the owner of a number
of farms in Cherokee County. One of them, the
largest and the one in which he .takes most pride,
lies in the upper part of Union County, and he owns
and controls about 3,000 acres.
He has never held or aspired to any public oflfice,
being a quiet, easy, plain citizen.
J. Roy Fant. The late John A. Fant established
the Monarch Mills at Union in 1900, and was presi-
dent and treasurer of that important industry for
the manufacture of wide print cloths and sheetings
until 1907. Thus the name Fant has been associated
with the textile industry of Union County through
two decades, and the initiative and enterprise of the
elder Fant are projected into the present by his
capable son J. Roy, who is now managing the Lock-
hart plant of the Monarch Mills.
John A. Fant was born in Union County and for
many years was a prominent merchant at Union, in
partnership with his brother under the firm name
of Fant Brothers until 1900, after which date he
gave all his time and energy to the development
of the business of the Monarch Mills and made it
one of the largest and most successful textile mills
in the * South. He was frequently honored with
public responsibilities, being mayor of Union, three
terms, resigning that office voluntarily. For several
years he was chairman of the Board of Trustees
of Union, and was a trustee of Furman University
at Greenville. He made an endowment to Furman
University of $1,000 for the benefit of one student
from Union County. Mr. Fant was in every sense
a highly useful and gifted citizen. His death in
1907 jcame when he was in the prime of his activity.
The mother was a Mcjunkin, of a historic family
of Union County. John A. Fant married Ora
Wilkes, who was born at Wilkesburg in Chester
County, daughter of the late Major John W. Wilkes,
and she is still living.
J. Roy Fant was born at Union in 1885, and
secured a liberal education, at Furman University
one year, graduated from the University of South
Carolina in 1906, and also attended the Eastman
Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York. In
January, 1907, he became an associate with his father
in the cotton mill business in the Monarch Mill at
Union. Later he became an active associate of Mr.
Emslie Nicholson, who succeeded his father as presi-
dent of the Monarch Mills. In 1913 Mr. Fant was
made vice president of the Nicholson Bank & Trust
Company at Union and held that office two years.
In August, 1914, he came to the Lockhart Mills at
Lockhart as assistant treasurer, and in the latter
part of 1917 this mill was merged with the Monarch
Mills at Union, being now known as the Lockhart
plant of the Monarch Mills. Mr. Fant has active
charge of the Lockhart plant,^ which has 57,184
spindles and manufactures sheetings and prints.
The development of Lockhart as a manufacturing
village has taken place largely under the eye and
direction of Mr. Fant. His sound judgment and
ability had contributed not only to the success of
the plant but he has been equally enthusiastic in the
making of Lockhart a beautiful and modern village
where contentment and prosperity are in evidence
on every hand. Mr. Fant is president of the Lock-
hart Bank and vice president and a director of the
Nicholson Bank & Trust Company at Union.
Mr. Fant married Miss Nathalie Hunter, who is
a native of Union County but was reared at Colum-
bia in the home of her grand mother, Mrs. Robert
W. Gibbes, and is therefore a member of the historic
Gibbes family of South Carolina. Mr. and Mrs. Fant
have two sons, J. Roy, Jr., and Murray Gibbes.
James Fitz-James Caldwell. Though one of the
most retiring and modest of men, James Fitz-James
Caldwell has rendered many conspicuous services to
his state, as a soldier, author, lawyer and man of
aflFairs.
He was born September 19, 1837, at Newberry,
where he is also passing his declining years. He is
a son of James John and Nancy Morgan (McMor-
ries) Caldwell. His great-grandfather, John Cald-
well, came from County Antrim, Ireland, in 177a
The grandfather, Dan Caldwell, was born in 1769
and spent his life as a farmer. James J. Caldwell,
who was born in Newberry County January 13,
1799, acquired his early education in the Mount
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
53
Bethel Academy, and in December, 1815, entered
South Carolina College, graduating three years
later. He was admitted to the bar in 1820 and
practiced at Newberry until 1843, when he removed
to Columbia. He was a man of high principles,
and it is said that he was once defeated as a candi-
date for the State Legislature because he refused
to subscribe to the usual practice of furnishing free
liquor to voters. Later he was elected and served
in the Legislature from 1830 to 1835, and was then
chosen solicitor for the Southwestern District, and
in 1846 was elected to the Chancery Bench, an office
he filled with great ability until his death in 1850.
Chancellor Caldwell has been called one of the
ablest orators the state ever produced.
James Fitz-James Caldwell, who was one of a
family of nine children, attended school at Columbia,
Anderson and Pendleton, and the South Carolina
College. He received no degree because he refused
a position offered at graduation, and thus forfeited
his diploma. Afterwards he pursued the study of
law for several months in the University of Berlin.
He was admitted to the bar in January, 185a having
studied in the office of General James Simons of
Charleston.
Mr. Caldwell was in the Confederate army
throughout the war, serving in the First Regiment
of South Carolina Infantry, Gregg's Regiment. He
was promoted from the ranks for "skill and valor
on the field of battle," and finally served as aide de
camp to Gen. Samuel McGowan in McGowan's
South Carolina Brigade. While there he collected
in memory and notes the data from which he pre-
pared a "History of a Brigade of South Carolinans,"
which has been pronounced one of the best con-
tributions from either side to the literature of the
Civil war. This book was published in 1866. Three-
fourths or more of it was written in camp.
From 1870 to 1890 Mr. Caldwell practiced law in
partnership with Major Suber. He is now prac-
tically retired from professional work. He has
served as director and attorney of the National
Bank of Newberry, the Newberry Savings Bank
and National Bank of Greenwood, and has repre-
sented other important interests. He became chair-
man of the County Democratic Executive Com-
mittee at its organization in 1868, and in that year
Newberry was one of the few counties in the state
in which democracy was successful. He was again
chosen county chairman in 1877. He has been in
politics for the sake of good government, and has
never been interested in political honors for him-
self. In fact the only public office he ever held was
as trustee of the University of South Carolina. He
is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
At Cokesbury, South Carolina, September 29, 1875,
he married Rebecca Capers Connor, daughter of
Francis A. Connor of Cokesbury.
Robert W. Gibbes, M. D. While for a number of
years he was a physician of large general practice
at Columbia, Doctor Gibbes* work is now limited to
the X-Ray, and as a specialist in that field he ranks
as the foremost in South Carolina.
While Doctor Gibbes was bom at Quincy, Florida,
August 20, 1872, he is a member of the South Caro-
lina Gibbes, a family of real renown and widely
known prominence of achievement and personal
character. His parents were Colonel James Guig-
nard and Rhoda (Waller) Gibbes. Doctor Gibbes'
great-great-grandfather was a planter on the Island
of Barbadoes, and afterwards rempved to Charles-
ton, founding the family in this state. Many of the
name have been prominent in the professions, in
politics, as soldiers, engineers, and in various fields
of practical achievement. Dr. Gibbes is the third
Robert W. Gibbes to pursue the profession of medi-
cine and surgery. One of them was his grand-
father, and the other an uncle. One very notable
member of the family was Major Wade Tampton VA
Gibbes, who served with the rank of Major oJ Artil-
lery in the Confederate army, and subsequently was
9 prominent official, merchant and banker at Colum-
bia.
Colonel James Guignard Gibbes was born in Co- '
lumbia January 6, 1829, was a graduate of South
Carolina College in 1847, and pursued special stud-
ies in mathematics and engineering in the South
Carolina Military Academy at Charleston. In 1852
he became chief engineer of the New Orleans, Opel-
ousas and Great Western Railway, the first railroad
built west of the Mississippi, now a part of the
Southern Pacific System. In 1854 he began the con-
struction of the Columbia and Augusta Railroad,
which was not completed until after the war. Fol-
lowing the war he built several of the Plant lines
in Florida and Georgia. Because of his interests as
a railroad builder he moved to Florida in 1870, but
returned to Columbia in 1890. About 1887 he was
made chief engineer of the Pensacola and Mobile
Railroad, later a part of the Louisville and Nash-
ville System.
Colonel Gibbes had a prominent part ip the for-
tunes of his State during the Confederacy. He con-
tributed millions to help the Confederacv, and was
much impoverished in consequence. Wnile he en-
listed as a soldier he was detailed by the Govern-
ment to take charge of his Saluda factory to make
cloth for the Confederacy. He was also successful
in negotiating a Confederate cotton loan in Europe,
and while abroad attended the marriage of the
Prince of Wales. He was chosen mayor of the
city of Columbia the day after it was burned by
Sherman, holding the office two years. He served as
collector of internal revenue during 1865-66. From
1890 he was state land agent, and is credited with
having put on the tax books a million acres of land.
He was twice married, his marriage to Miss Rhoda
Waller, then Mrs. Gilchrist, being celebrated August
8, 1870.
Dr. Robert W. Gibbes was graduated from the
South Carolina University in 1892 and finished his
work in South Carolina Medical College in 1895.
He was an honor graduate of his medical school and
during 1895-96 was resident physician of the
Charleston City Hospital, locating in Columbia in
1896. In 1905, and again in 1909, he made extensive
tours through Europe, visiting the various hospitals
and medical colleges, where he pursued intensive
clinical research, particularly at the University of
Vienna where he enjoyed special opportunities and
privileges, under the personal guidance of Professor
Holtzneck, head of the Roentgen Department of the
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
University, and a noted pioneer in Gastro-Intestinal
work.
Some years ago Dr. Gibbes became the pioneer
X-Ray specialist in Columbia. In fact he began his
studies of this marvelous discovery soon after it
was announced from. Europe, and acquired his first
X-Ray equipment soon after the value of the X-Ray
was demonstrated as an essential in modern medical
and surgical practice. In passing years he has de-
voted himself exclusively to this line of work. His
laboratory is at 1508 Sumter Street, and is one of
.the most complete in the South. He is the X-Ray
scientist for the medical profession in Columbia and
his part of the South, and is a member of a number
of scientific societies relating to the X-Ray. He is
also a member of the Columbia Medical Society and
the State and American Medical Associations. No-
vember 29, 1900, Dr. Gibbes married Miss Ethel Dole
Andrews of Woodworth, Wisconsin.
A cousin of Dr. Gibbes is the eminent Dr. J.Hcy-
ward Gibbes of Columbia, who as a specialist in
internal diseases is one of the ablest men in the
South. He was educated also at the University of
South Carolina, receiving his A. B. and B. S. degrees
from that institution, while his degree in medicine
was awarded by Johns Hopkins University. He was
resident physician in the hospital of Johns Hopkins
University for two years before beginning practice
in Columbia. He has also spent much time abroad
in Europe in post-graduate study and investigation.
Samuel B. George, a former clerk of the court
of Lexington County, is president of the Home
National Bank of Lexington, and has been an active
and influential factor in that part of the state for
many years. He organized the Home National Bank
in 1908 with a capital of $25,000, this capital being
increased in 1919 to $50,000. The bank has a surplus
of $10,000 and deposits averaging $300,000.
Mr. George also organized and is secretary and
treasurer of the Citizens Telephone Company,
operating 550 telephones in and around Lexington.
Among other interests he owns and operates a 200-
acre farm.
Mr. George was born at Laurel Falls Homestead,
near Lexington, July 27, 1871, a son of E. J. and
Bedia (Taylor) George. He is descended from
Ludwig George, who came from Switzerland and
joined the American army at Charleston toward the
close of the Revolutionary struggle. He afterwards
settled in Lexington County, where he died in 1807.
E. J. George was a planter and miller, a very
capable and industrious man, and gave his son plenty
of work to do to develop habits of industry and
judgment. Samuel B. attended the local schools,
also the publk schools of Lexington, and acquired
a good education by study at night and by constant
use of the opportunities presented by papers and
good magazines and other literature. From the age
of nineteen he for several years had charge of his
father's flour mills, cotton gins and corn mills. On
his twenty-first birthday he was commissioned a
notary public and on December 19, 1892, was made
official court deputy of the clerk of court. He was
elected to that office in 1900, and held it for eight
)rcars. He was also commissioner of elections for
delegates to the constitutional convention in 1895,
and has served as member of the County Board of
Education. He has been a prominent official of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Lexington^
and is a Knight Templar Mason, a Shriner, member
of the Knights of Pythias, Junior Order of United
American Mechanics and Sons of Confederate Vet-
erans.
December 29, 1896, he married Miss Olga O.
Hendrix, a daughter of J. S. and Martha Hendrix.
To their marriage were bom five children. Celeste
O., now Mrs. Henry Wienges, Samuel A., Juanita
O., Francis C. and Sol Irby.
Robert Thomas Jennings, M. D. An important
use of the opportunities and privileges of the medi-
cal profession has been made by Dr. Robert Thomas
Jennings, formerly of McCormick and for the past
ten years of Columbia. Doctor Jennings in addition
to a large private practice in medicine and surgery
is resident physician for the South Carolina State
Penitentiary and for the Reform Institute for
Colored Youth near Columbia.
He was born at Edgefield, South Carolina, in 1876,
and comes of a family of physicians. The Jennings
family is of English origin and was established
several generations ago in Edgefield District of
South Carolina. His parents are Dr. W. D. and
Mattie Elizabeth (Turner) Jennings, who now re-
side at Augusta, Georgia, where his father has
carried on a large practice for many years. Dr.
W. D. Jennings was also born and educated in
Edgefield County. He enlisted at the age of sixteen
in the Confederate army and performed the duties
of a private soldier, while his uncle. Dr. J. H.
Jennings, was a surgeon in the Confederacy.
Robert Thomas Jennings received his early educa-
tion in a private school at Edgefield, and took his
medical course in the Medical Department of the
University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee,
graduating with the class of 1897. For a time he
practiced at Augusta, Georgia, then for twelve years
was at McCormick, South Carolina, and since 1909
has found a larger scope for his experience and
abilities in the capital city of the state. Doctor
Jennings is a member of the Executive ' Board of
the Columbia Hospital, and is affiliated with the
Columbia Medical Society and the State and Ameri-
can Medical associations. He is a member of the
Masonic Order and belongs to the Main Street
Methodist Church, South, in Columbia.
He married Miss Lillie May Talbert of McCor-
mick County, daughter of Dr. R. J. Talbert. They
have two children, Permelia and William Robert
Jennings.
Charles C. Stanley. For over twenty years
Doctor Stanley has enjoyed a substantial profession-
al reputation as a dental surgeon at Columbia. In
this time he has also served in the U. S. army in a
professional capacity in two wars.
In the fall of 1919 he resumed his private practice
after having been continuously on duty sixteen
months in the dental department of the United
States Army. He offered his services to the Gov-
ernment through Secretary Baker soon after the
beginning of the war in April, 1917. He passed the
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
55
examination required for military dental service
and was commissioned a first lieutenant in Novem-
ber, 1917. He was called to active duty May 26,
1918, with the First Battalion of the Fiftieth In-
fantry, stationed at Curtis Bay Ordnance Depot,
South Baltimore. Later he was transferred to the
Third Battalion of the same regiment at Potomac
Park, Washington. His most important work, and
the experience which counted for the greatest good
to him in a professional way and through which he
rendered his greatest service in the war, was his
work in the dental infirmary of St. Elizabeth's Hos-
pital in Washington. Here he had charge of the
dental infirmary and in this institution many thou-
sands of soldiers and sailors were treated. Under
Doctor Stanley was a staff of ambitious and capable
young dentists. The duties of this staff were both
examination and treatment, and many of the soldiers
were for the first time in their lives impressed with
the importance of the care of the teeth. Beside the
practical benefit of this work to the young men in
fitting them for military efficiency it will have an
untold value in all future years as a means of proper
education and understanding of measures necessary
for good health. Doctor Stanley received his dis-
charge from the army dental service September 4,
1919, and shortly afterward received his commission
as Captain U. §. Reserves, this commission having
been held up on account of the signing of the armis-
tice.
Doctor Stanley was born and has spent most of
his life in Columbia, where he represents one of the
oldest and most substantial families. His great-
grandfather was a large property holder in the city.
He owned the entire block within which stands the
First Presbyterian Church. He donated part of this
land to the church and is buried in the church 3rard.
Doctor Stanley's grandfather was K. ti. Stanley,
a civil engineer and one of the pioneer settlers of
Butler County, Alabama. A brother of R. H. Stan-
ley, Capt. W. B. Stanley, a veteran of the famous
Palmetto Regiment, was president of the old Central
National Bank of Columbia, president of the Colum-
bia Gas Company, President of the Board of Re-
gents of the State Hospital and one of the wealthiest
and most influential citizens of Columbia in his day.
He was one of the city's aldermen when Sherman
entered Columbia and was the first to occupy the
office of intendant or mayor after the redemption
of the state from "carpet bag rule."
John Calhoun Stanley, Doctor Stanley's father,
entered the Confederate Army at the age of seven-
teen and was badly wounded at the battle of Mal-
vern Hill. Though crippled in body and fortune
by the war, yet with undaunted courage, he came
to Columbia at the close of the war and soon be-
came one of the cit/s most successful business men.
He was a member of the Board of School Com-
missioners which established the present system of
graded schools, and as a member of the City Coun-
cil from Ward three he did much to further the
interests of the schools.
Doctor Stanley's mother was Miss Mary Isabel
Carringtoti, whose paternal ancestors were among
the early settlers of Concord, Massachusetts.
Charles Carrington Stanley was educated in the
public schools of Columbia, in Professor Clarkson's
private school, and in Patrick's Military Institute
at Anderson. He studied dentistry at the University
of Maryland, graduating in 1894, did his post-gradu-
ate work in 1895 and for a year was demonstrator
in extraction in the Dental School of the University.
Then followed several busy years building up a prac-
tice in his home city. During the Spanish-American
war Doctor Stanley was given the Government con-
tract for the dental work of the First and Second
South Carolina regiments. He is a member of
the State, National and Army Dental associations.
Doctor Stanley represented Ward Three in the City
Council.
He married Miss Annie Wilson, of Monongahela,
Pennsylvania. Their only son, John Carrington
Stanley, was the youngest graduate of the University
6i South Carolina in the class of '17. He was in-
structor of chemistry and junior law student at the
university at the outbreak of the war, when he
volunteered for the Aviation Corps and was sta-
tioned at Kelly Field, Texas. Since the close of the
war he has been employed as chemist in the Du-
quesne Steel Works near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Olher p. Loyal. While he is recogiiized as one
of the younger business men of Columbia, Mr. Lo3ral
has made his initiative and enterprise count as influ-
ential factors in several important lines, each con-
tributing towards the advancement of the Capital
City as a business and commercial center. He is an
official of the Palmetto National Bank, one of the
leading financial institutions of the South; secretary
of the Carolina Wholesale Hardware Company;
treasurer of the Southern Motor Company, and
president of the Loyal-Covin Contracting Company.
Mr. Loyal is of Scotch and French ancestry and
was born at Garnett in Hampton County, December
7, 1891. His parents were Louis Charles, Jr., and
Fannie (Bostick) Loyal, the former a native of
Hampton County. The Bosticks are a Scotch fam-
ily of lower Carolina. The grandfather. Rev. Louis
Charles Loyal, was born in France, and on coming
to South Carolina in the early forties settled in
Hampton County, where for a number of years he
was widely known as a Methodist minister.
Oliver P. Loyal attended the Garnett graded
schools and also Wofford College at Spartanburg,
and has been a resident of Columbia since 1907.
After two years of employment with the passenger
department of the Southern Railway, he entered the
Palmetto National Bank, and on the merit of good
service has been promoted to the assistant cashier-
ship, an office he has held since 1917.
Mr. Loyal is one of the organizers and is joint
owner with Mr. L. S. Covin of the Southern Motor
Company. This well known Columbia concern are
distributors for the Marmon, American Six, Scripps-
Booth Six automobiles, and the White truck. Since
taking up his work as a building contractor Mr.
Loyal has done an extensive business in Columbia.
He is one of that city's hardest working young busi-
ness men, and is closely identified with its every
movement for advancement and progress.
Mr. Loyal married Miss Lidie Richbourg of Dil-
lon, South Carolina. They have one son, Henry
Richbourg Loyal.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Sewall Kemble Oliver is a graduate engineer
and has given his professional services largely to
the cotton mill industry of the South and has
achieved especial prominence. With headquarters at
Columbia, he represents one of the leading cotton
mills of the state as their agent.
Mr. Oliver was born at Baltimore, Maryland, June
25, 1884, a son of Charles K. and Catherine C.
(Reed) Oliver. He had a private school education,
and afterward prepared at Worcester Academy,
Worcester, Massachusetts, and finished with a chem-
ical and general engineering course at Yale Uni-
versity in the Sheffield Scientific School. The cot-
ton industry and cotton milling have been familiar
to him practically since early youth, since his father
was connected with and interested in several miljs
and organized the Columbia Mills of this city and
helped develop the water power at Columbia.
Mr. Oliver during 1908-09 was superintendent of
the Druid Mills and in 1909 came to Columbia as
superintendent of the Columbia Mills Company. He
is also a bank director and is one of the busy and
successful men of the capital city.
October 23, 1909, he married Miss Lucy Hardy,
of Norfolk, Virginia. Her father, Caldwell Hardy,
is a former president of the Norfolk National Bank
and the Norfolk Savings & Trust Company and
agent of the Richmond district, of the Federal Re-
serve Bank. Mr. and Mrs. Oliver have three chil-
dren: Sewall Kemble, Jr., Hardy and Lucy. Mr.
Oliver is a member and vice president of the Rotary
Club and also a member of the Ridgewood and
Columbia Clubs.
Columbia Mills. The first cotton mills in South
Carolina and, in fact, in the United States, to be
completely electrically driven were the Columbia
Mills, which also enjoy another well earned distinc-
tion as among the largest heavy duck mills in the
world.
These mills were organized by Mr. Charles K.
Oliver and building started early in 1892. Opera-
tion of the mills was begun in 1893. The motive
power weTe the first induction motors ever manu-
factured larger than 15 H. P. All the electrical
equipment was supplied by the General Electric
Company. The powerhouse was located between the
canal and river, and electric power was developed
from water taken from the Columbia Canal. There
was a distinct advantage in this, since through trans-
mission of electric current the necessity was elimi-
nated of locating the mills in the low ground along
the canal or river, thus securing a more elevated
position than had been therefore possible for any
of the cotton mills operated direct by water power.
Up to 1900 the mills were continued under the
original management, with Aretas Blood as presi-
dent and Charles K. Oliver treasurer, secretary and
general manager. During those early years the well
known Aretas brand achieved its reputation. In
woo the Mount Vernon-Woodberry Cotton Duck
Cfompany of Baltimore acquired a large part of the
stock.
The product has probably exceeded that of the
combined output of all the other mills in Columbia.
In 1916 nearly $700,000 were paid out for labor,
figures that graphically indicate the tremendous im-
portance of the mill as a source of prosperity to
Columbia. At that time about 1,700 names were
on the payroll.
The mill village is situated on high ground on the
Lexington side of the river and for years the
people of Columbia and the managers of the mill
have taken pride in the model character of this
village. All the facilities for welfare, recreation,
education, and other means of enlightenment have
been introduced, and probably no mills in the state
are surrounded by a more permaent and contented
and prosperous class of working people.
For the past eleven years the agent of the Co-
lumbia Mills Company has been Sewall K. Oliver,
a son of the founder of the industry, Charles K.
Oliver.
Frederick Hargrove Hyatt entered the life in-
surance business thirty-five years ago, and on the
basis of accomplished results he has become one of
the most widely known insurance men in the South.
For many years he was general manager for South
Carolina with the Mutual Life Insurance Company
of New York.
He was born in Anson County, North Carolina,
June 14, 1849, son of Davis and Louisa (Pumble-
ton) Hyatt. He is of remote German ancestry on
his father's side and of English through his mother.
His mother was a relative of Bishop R. K. Har-
?rove of the Methodist Church. His father was a
armer and manufacturer, and Frederick H. grew
up on his father's farm and early learned the value
of hard labor as a means to success. He acquired
his early education in the Field schools, also at-
tended Anson Academy and Rutherford College,
each in North Carolina, paying the greater part of
his expenses while in school, by clerking at night
and Saturdays in one of the local stores. His favor-
ite subjects in school and since have been mathe-
matics and commercial law.
In 1884 Mr. Hyatt became superintendent of the
agents of the Valley Mutual Life Insurance Asso-
ciation of Virginia. He soon determined to ally
himself with the "old line" branch of insurance, for
about two years was a sub-agent with the New York
Life Insurance Company, and subsequently became
district agent for the Mutual Life Insurance Com-
pany. In 1892 he was appointed general manager of
the Mutual Life for the states of North and South
Carolina.
A number of important enterprises have been
promoted and have been benefited by his participa-
tion and influence. From 1894 to 1896 he served as
president of the Columbia and Eau Claire Railroad
Company. He has been a director of the National
Loan and Exchange Bank, of the Columbia Loan
and Trust Company, vice president of the Public
Service Company, treasurer of the Southern Cotton
Association of South Carolina, secretary of the
Hyatt Brick Company, and president of the South
Carolina Marble Works. He has been interested in
dairy farming for a number of years and is owner
of much valuable real estate, having laid out and
developed "Hyatt Park," a suburb of Columbia.
In 1896 Mr. Hyatt became president of the Young
Men's Christian Association of Columbia, and has
served as a member of the board of trustees and
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
57
on the executive committee of Columbia College.
He may justly be called the founder of this institu-
tion, since in addition to a very liberal cash dona-
tion he gave the land upon which the college build-
ings were erected, besides devoting his time and
effort in raising the additional funds necessary for
the building and establishment of the college. He
is a democrat, and one of the* leading laymen
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He
became superintendent of the Washington Street
Methodist Sunday School in 1900 and served as
president of the State Sunday School Association
during 1894-95. He has also been identified with
the good roads movement, and his influence and
example both in private and business life have been
a source of constant value to his home city and state.
August 12, 1874, Mr. Hyatt married Miss Lena
S. Kendall. She was the mother of eleven children.
April 13, 1908, Mr. Hyatt married Miss Daisy Bart-
lett Kistler, of Columbus, Ohio, and to them have
been born three daughters.
Claudius M. Lide is a prominent building con-
tractor of Columbia and has been one of that city's
progressive young business men for nearly twenty
years.
Bishop Gregg's well known "History of the
Cheraws" contains numerous references to the
Lides and their kinsmen the Colters, as amon? the
historic families of the Pee Dee section of South
Carolina. The Lide family according to this author-
ity came from Wales, where they had lived for gen-
erations, to America about 1740, settling in the old
Cheraw district. There were three brothers, John,
Thomas and Robert. The name was originally
spelled Lloyd. Colonel Thomas Lide, second of the
three brothers, settled on the Pee Dee River at
Cheraw Hill. He had an active part in the organiza-
tion of St. David's parish, giving the land for the
church buildings and afterwards' continuing gen-
erous contributions to the maintenance of the church.
One of his daughters was the mother of the late
Governor John Lide Wilson. The youngest of the
three brothers was Major Robert Lide, who served
as an officer in the Revolutionary war under General
Francis Marion. Hannah, one of his daughters, mar-
ried Thomas Hart, for whom the town of Hartsville
was named. One of Thomas Lide's sons -was Charles
Motte Lide, to whom history has assigned a high
place as a lawyer of genius and a famous orator.
Qaudius M. Lide was born at Darlington, South
Carolina, in 1878, son of John Miller and Eliza
(Edwards) Lide, the latter a native of Georgia.
John M. Lide was also a native of Darlington, son
of Evans James Lide. He was educated in Fur-
man University and from that school entered the
Confederate army, serving four years.
Claudius M. Lide attended the famous St. John's
graded school in Darlington, and began his business
career as an architectural draftsman in the office of
C. C. Wilson and W. A. Edwards, architects, at Co-
lumbia. His home has been in Columbia since he
was eighteen years of age* Mr. Lide for several
years has had an established and independent busi-
ness as a building contractor. He has specialized
somewhat in the building of fine residences in Co-
hmbia and over the State, and has also built a num-
ber of public buildings and business structures. A
complete list of his achievements would be hardly
practicable, but some of the more representative in-
clude the Darlington High School building, the Girls'
Industrial School near Columbia, the Kirkland
Apartments in Columbia, the Taylor store building
in Columbia, the residence of Dr. Robert W. Gibbes
on Calhoun Street in Columbia.
Mr. Lide is a member of the Rotary Club, and is a
thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a
member of Omar Temple of the Mystic Shrine at
Charleston.
Dr. Laurence P. Geer came to South Carolina as
a member of the Public Health Service of the
Government during the war, and after resigning
from that work determined to remain in this state
and is founder and active head of the pathological
laboratory of the Baptist Hospital at Columbia.
Doctor Geer, though he was bom and' reared and
educated in the heart of New England, feels a
kinship with South Carolina, sings one branch of his
English ancestors, who settled in New England in
the seventeenth century, came south and founded
the widely known Geer family in this state.
Doctor Geer was born at Lynn, Massachusetts, in
1891, a son of Charles W. and Izzette (Patten)
Geer. His mother was a native of Lynn, while his
father was born at Norwich, Connecticut. Charles
W. Geer died at Lynn in 1913.
Laurence P. Geer was graduated with the degree
Bachelor of Science from the Massachusetts In-
stitute of Technology in 1915. He specialized in
biology and public health work, and that training
has been the basis of his vocation and profession.
At the beginning of the war with Germany he
volunteered in the United States Public Health
Service, and his previous training made him a valu-
able adjunct to that service. He was assigned to
duty at Camp Jackson, Columbia, and continued
there until the close of the war, when he resigned
and in the summer of 1919 established the pathol-
ogical laboratory of the Baptist Hospital. He has
a fully equipped laboratory for all kinds of tests
and scientific research as an adjunct to the hospital
and to the medical profession in general. Doctor
Geer is a man of thorough scientific training and
tastes and his presence at Columbia is an important
contribution to that city.
Jesse Benjamin Ballentine after finishing his
college education entered upon a career as a teacher,
and was identified with the schools of Batesburg
Erior to his leaving educational work and entering
anking, which is the field in which his energies and
talents are employed with conspicuous success.
Mr. Ballentine was born in Lexington County
August 19, 1888, a son of William Jonas and Helen
(Riser) Ballentine. He grew up on his father's
farm, attended country schools, the high school at
Lexington, received his Master of Arts degree from
Newberry College and was also a student in South
Carolina College. In 1913 he became principal of
the Prosperity High School, remained there two
years, was principal of the Brightsville High School
one year, and for two years was superintendent of
the Batesburg schools. In August, 1918, he was
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
made manager of the Batesburg branch of the Bank
of Western Carolina. In addition to the responsibili-
ties of that position he is vice president of the local
Board of Trade, and chairman of the local Red
Cross. He is a prominent member of the Lutheran
Church.
March 19, 1917, he married Mary Sue Griffin of
Greenwood. They have a son James Bruce, born
June 21, 1918.
Lark IN LeRoy Clippard. While one of the
younger ligures among the cotton manufacturers of
South Carolina, Larkin LeRoy Clippard of Enoree
has an interesting record as a builder and reviver
of industry. He learned cotton milling when a boy,
and is still a comparatively young man. In 191 5 Mr.
Clippard in association with Mr. Allan J. Graham
of Greenville bought the Enoree Mills at Enoree
in Spartanburg County. They faced a prospect that
might have discouraged men of less enterprise and
confidence in their own judgment and abilities. Not
a wheel had turned in the plant for nearly a year.
The mills prescnte'd a picture not only of idleness
but of settling ruin. The new owners bought the
industry from a receiver and started at once to
completely make over the facilities at hand. While
they have been in charge less than five years, the
result is now one of the finest cotton manufacturing
plants in the state. The Enoree Mill has 36,000
spindles, 842 looms, and manufactures enormous
quantities of sheeting and drills. The mill is cap-
italized at $600,000. The president and treasurer of
the company is Mr. Graham, while Mr. Clippard is
vice president and general manager.
The Enoree mill is located on the Enoree River.
A dam and water power are the source of electricity
for operating the plant and other local industries.
The prosperity of the business itself has been re-
flected in the model mill village which has been
developed and is in process of development. Those
at the head of the business are guided by high ideals
and purposes in line with the most advanced and
progressive thought of the new industrial aids. In
less than five years the village and its homes have
been practically rebuilt, most of the old houses being
replaced by new ones. Important public utilities ar*;
electric lights, water works, ice plant and laundry.
The ground about the individual homes, will be
beautified and public playgrounds and recreation
•spots will be laid out and constructed. The com-
pany at its own expense has erected a handsome
new school building at a cost of $30,000. Six teach-
ers are employed in this building and practically all
the salaries are paid by the company. Many other
features of modem community and welfare work
have been instituted, such as girls* clubs, mothers'
clubs, a canning club which in 1918 put up 2,000
cans of fruit and vegetables furnished by the com-
pany. During the summer of 1919 plans were under
way for a Young Men's Christian Association and
Young Women's Christian Association Building and
hardly a phase of community progn*ess has been
neglected.
Mr. Clippard in July, 1919, married Miss
Katharine Murchison of Camden, South Carolina.
She is a member of an old and prominent Scotch
family of lower South Carolina.
Benjamin Frankun Perry Leaphart began his
career over thirty years ago as a bank clerk at Co-
lumbia, has been a figure of increasing importance
and influence in the financial life of the capital city,
and among other things to his credit was the found-
ing of the Columbia Clearing House Association.
He was born at Columbia December 27, 18^, a
son of John Samuel and Martha Virginia (Janney)
Leaphart. His father is remembered for his long
service of a quarter of a century as assistant post-
master of Columbia, holding that position under va-
rious postmasters. The son was educated in pri-
vate schools, in the South Carolina College, and his
first bank clerkship was with the Commercial Bank
of Columbia. Later he became one of the organizers
of the Bank of Columbia and was its bookkeeper
and assistant cashier fifteen years. He was then
elected president of the Columbia Savings Bank and
Trust Company and in 1907 established the Colum-
bia Clearing House Association of which he has
since been secretary, treasurer and manager. The
Clearing House Association has a membership of ten
banks, and these institutions clear $16,000,000
through the association every month.
Mr. Leaphart is a member and former deacon of
the First Baptist church and is affiliated with the
Knights of Pythias. On April 17, 1900, he married
Miss Annie Louise Bruce of Columbia, daughter of
Horace E. Bruce. Her father was a native of Eng-
land' and for many years a merchant at Columbia.
Mr. and Mrs. leaphart have two children: Benja- '
min Franklin Perry, Jr., a student in the University
of South Carolina; and Edwin Bruce, attending high
school.
Thomas Walter Boyle. Every man has a proper
pride in the growth and success of his individual
business and affairs. When that pride is enlarged
and seasoned with a sincere public spirit, derived
from the growth and prosperity of an entire com-
munity, it is deserving of special praise and com-
mendation. It is the enthusiasm which he has always
shown in the upbuilding of the Greeleyville com-
munity in Williamsburg County that distinguished
Thomas Walter Boyle beyond the average success-
ful business man. He went to that locality in 1886,
nearly thirty-five years ago, when it was known as
Greeleyville. and a flag stop on the Atlantic Coast
Line Railroad. Though at that time he was only a
saw mill laborer, Mr. Boyle has furnished much of
the enterprise for several of the institutions that give
Greelejrville its business significance, and all the
various lines of development, benefiting every per-
son living in that section, have been matters of the
deepest satisfaction to Mr. Boyle.
He was born near Ridge way in Fairfield County
in 1856, son of William C. and Virginia (Hogan)
Boyle. His father was bom about thirteen miles
north of Columbia in Richland County on the ,
Winnsboro Road, but subsequently lived on a plan- '
tation near Ridgeway in Fairfield County some
twenty miles north of Columbia. He left his plan-
tation at the beginning of the war between the
States, and while serving as a Confederate soldier
was killed in the battle of Lookout Mountain in
1863.
Besides the loss of his father Thomas Walter
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
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Boyle had the other handicaps imposed upon every
South Carolina youth by the extreme poverty of the
state in the reconstruction period. He lived on a
plantotion, worked in the fields, and was well satis-
fied with the wage of twenty-five cents a day.
Mr. Boyle was taken into the firm of Boyle &
Hogan, and five years later E. G. Mallard acquired
an interest. By mutual agreement the name of the
company has emphasized the oldest member of the
firm. Therefore this business is known as the
Mallard Lumber Company, with Mr. Boyle as vice
president. While the manufacture of lumber con-
stitutes his oldest interest in the community, Mr.
Boyle is also president of the Bank of Greeleyville,
is president of the Greeleyville Land & Improvement
Company, and through these companies exercises a
controlling influence in local lumber manufacture,
merchandising, planting and other interests.
When Mr. Boyle came to Greeleyville it had only
a saw mill, a store and two dwelling houses, the
nearest school was five miles away, and the nearest
telegraph office and passenger train station was at
Foreston, six miles away. Considering the present
resources of Greeleyville it is easy to understand
Mr. Boyle's pride and satisfaction in what has been
accomplished during the past thirty years. He is an
active member of Ae Methodist Church, is affiliated
with the Masons, Knights of Pythias and Wood-
men of the World. He married Mrs. Ella Boyle
Hogan.
Thomas Ketchin Eluott, for over forty years a
prominent banker, manufacturer and citizen of
Winnsboro, was born in the years before the war
and grew up in the straitened atmosphere of the
State during the war and reconstruction.
His birth occurred in Fairfield County October
^. 1855, son of a merchant and banker and farmer,
Henry Laurens Elliott. Though his mature career
has been spent in business affairs, Thomas K. Elliott
had some active acquaintance with manual toil as a
boy in the fields and on the farm. H^ attended
country schools, and in 1875 graduated from the
\'irginia Military Institute ranking third in a class
of forty-five. He left school to take the nosition of
teller in the Winnsboro National Bank. He has been
with that institution for over forty years, and for a
number of years has been its president and active
executive head. Mr. Elliott was also president of the
Fairfield Cotton Mills at Winnsboro and president
of the Wylie Mills at Chester for many years. As
a successful business man he has had a sense of
responsibility to his community and to all the in-
tcrest^i entrusted to his char^re, and he has given a
splendid account of his stewardship.
Mr^ Elliott is a democrat, and for many years
has been a member and elder in the Associate Re-
formed Presb)rterian Church. November 26, 1879,
he married Miss Carrie Aiken. To their union were
bom seven children.
David B. Feontis, M. D. For fully thirty years
Doctor Frontis has practiced medicine and surgery
at Ridge Spring in Saluda County. The enviable
standing he has achieved in his profession is sup-
plemented by an active and influential leadership in
every movement affecting that rich and prosperous
and enlightened section.
While so long a resident of South Carolina Doc-
tor Frontis is a native of North Carolina and mem-
ber of an old and prominent family of that State.
He was born in Iredell County in 1856, son of Rev.
Stephen and Rachel (Beaty) Frontis. In the pater-
nal line he is of French ancestry, though men of
that name frequently intermarried .with Scotch-
Irish people in a section of North Carolina prevail-
ingly Scotch-Irish, Mecklenburg, Iredell and Rowan
counties. The Beaty family also has prominent con-
nections in the same counties, one of the earliest
settlers having established his home at Beaty's Ford
in Mecklenburg County. The ancestors of Doctor
Frontis were the founders of Presbyter ianism in
that section, beginning about 1750. Doctor Frontis*
father was one of the founders of Davidson College
in North Carolina, an institution which has grad-
uated many well known men including Woodrow
Wilson. Rev. Stephen Fronfis was financial agent
and raised much of the money among Presbyterians
for the founding of Davidson College during the
forties. For some time he was also a professor of
the college, though his life work was that of a min-
ister.
David B. Frontis also was a student for two and
a half years in Davidson College, during 1875-76.
He studied medicine in the University of Maryland,
graduating in 1880. He practiced at' Lexington, then
for four years at Wadesboro, North Carolina, and
in 1889 removed to Ridge Springs. For several
years until loio Doctor Frontis was a member of
the State Board of Health of South Carolina and
one of its executive committee. He was member
and examining physician for the local draft board of
Saluda County and gave much of his time to that
patriotic duty for eighteen months. He is a mem-
ber of the County, State and American Medical
associations and of the Presb3rterian Church.
He married Miss Annie McKay of Baltimore.
They have four children: Grace, Mrs. Ruby Wat-
son, J. B. Frontis and Mrs. Mary Watson.
Neil Alexander McMillan is a name that should
go down in any authentic history of Marion County
as one of the founders of what is frequently re-
ferred to as the New School of Agriculture in South
Carolina.
Mr. McMillan was born in Marion County April
18, 1855, a son of Malcolm S. and Elizabeth (Wil-
liamson) McMillan. His father was a planter, and
at the time of the war between the states was em-
ployed by the Confederate Government in the steam-
boat service, and died during the war. In helping
his mother conduct the farm after the death of his
father, he learned early in life to use all his facul-
ties of observation, and, reasoning from effect to
cause, he became by the time he began business for
himself, convinced that the old, slipshod way of
conducting farm operations which had been in vogue
since slavery days, must give place to a more effi-
cient system. From then on, he became an apostle
of intensified and diversified agriculture. He has
alwa3rs stood for a greater and more intelligent use
of commercial fertilizers; for home mixing of in-
gredients, based on his observation of their effects
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
on his soil and crops ; for the best and purest breeds
of farm animals; for the growing on his own farm
of all the farm supplies that his soil and climate
could produce; for the planting of the best seed
obtainable and the maintaining of the purity of the
seed used, and as he believes that perfection in
development is never reached, for the still further
development of all seeds, and breeds of animals as
well.
N. A. McMillan has always been a public spirited
man. Forty-five years ago, when it was difficult to
obtain fertilizers except through local agents and
the prices asked therefor were almost prohibitive
to the farmer, based on a credit system, he advo-
cated the idea of the farmer mixing the ingredients
himself, and by combining the needs of the farmers
in his communitv and getting the materials in car-
load lots for cash, they have been able to fully sup-
ply their demands at a minimum cost to the indi-
vidual farmer. He has given his time, his thought
and his best services unsparingly in thus helpmg
and bringing together the farmers of his commu-
nity, and the great progress which has been made in
recent years in the upbuilding of the community
in which he lives, and the community spirit which
exists there may be said to be more largely due to
his efforts than to any other influence. In order
to better carry out his ideas of co-operation and
combined energies as the most necessary and the
strongest forces in the development of the country,
he built and fitted up the "McMillan Hall," free
of charge, as a meeting place in the town of Mul-
lins for the farmers or for any other gathering
looking to the upbuilding of the town or surround-
irfg country.
As a result partly at least of his efforts, among
other things might be mentioned the formation of a
company during the fall of 1919 to buy distress cot-
ton, which in ninety days declared a dividend of
forty per cent, to stockholders; also, of a recent or-
ganization with a capital stock of $100,000 to buy,
store and sell all kinds of farm produce.
Mr. McMillan has been twice married. On Decem-
ber 30, 1879, he married Eunice Irene Davis of
Florence County. From this marriage, there are
the following named children now living: Jeter
Davis McMillan, Malcolm Yullee McMillan and
Blanche McMillan Austin, all of Winter Garden,
Florida, and Neilie McMillan, Sallie McMillan and
George Reaves McMillan, all now residing in South
Carolina. On June 12, 1907, he married Janet Wil-
son Northcross of Virginia, and they have one
daughter, Lucy Lee McMillan.
James R. Westmoreland. Westmoreland is an
old English name, and the family has been one of
equal distinction and of residence for almost two
centuries in America. Three of the Westmorelands
left England about 1732 and settled, one in Penn-
sylvania, one in Virginia and one on the Enoree
River in what is now the southwest section of Spar-
tanburg county and in the upper part of Laurens
county. Those ancestors had a grant from the King
of England to a large tract of land in that section.
Some of that land has been owned and lived upon
continuously by Westmorelands nearly two centuries.
Through the many generations the family has per-
formed a great deal of effective service, has ren-
dered duty in army, in business, industry and other
affairs, though few of them have aspired to the
conspicuous honors of politics. Probably a majority
of the men of the name have been planters, lawyers
or doctors.
James R. Westmoreland, who has an interesting
place in South Carolina's industrial affairs, is local
manager of the Pacolet Manufacturing Company at
Pacolet in Spartanburg County. He is a grandson
of James R. Westmoreland and a son of John A.
and Margaret (Rush) Westmoreland. He was bom
on the Westmoreland ancestral estate on the Enoree
River in the upper part of Laurens County, adjoin-
ing the Spartanburg County line, in 1876. He is a
graduate of The Citadel with the class of 1900, and
is now a member of the Committee of the Alumni
Association which has in charge the raising of the
"Greater Citadel Fund," to promote the interests of
South Carolina's famous military college and is also
a member of its Executive Committee. After leav-
ing The Citadel Mr. Westmoreland was connected
for a time with the Central National Bank of Spar-
tanburg County, and subsequently organized and for
five years was connected with a bank at Woodruff.
Since then he *has held his present office as local
manager for the great cotton mills of the Pacolet
Manufacturing Company. The president of the
company is Mr. Victor M. Montgomery, and in an
article which follows his name is contained some-
thing of the history of this splendid industrial insti-
tution.
Mr. Westmoreland married Miss Eugenia Childs
of Columbia. Her father was the late Colonel W.
G. Childs of that city, builder of the Columbia, New-
berry & Laurens Railroad, founder of the Bank of
Columbia, and otherwise prominently identified with
the leading business interests of the state. Mr. and
Mrs. Westmoreland have two children, William
Childs and Margaret Rush Westmoreland.
Elbert Newton Whitmire is a well known
banker in Greenville County, has been a resident of
• Greenville since 1912, and is president and cashier
of the Textile Bank of Greenville, South Carolina,
having been one of the incorporators of that bank.
Mr. Whitmire was bom in Macon County, North
Carolina, in 1880, and has six brothers and three
sisters. His great-grandfather, John Whitmire, was
born in old Pickens District, South Carolina, and
lived on the Keowee River not far from old Pickens
courthouse. The grandfather, William Whitmire,
was born and lived in the same locality for some
years, but finally moved to Rabun County, Georgia.
John Columbus Whitmire, a farmer, father of the
Greenville banker, was bom in Rabun County, Geor-
gia, and is still living in that state. He lived for
several years in Macon County, North Carolina,
where he married Miss Jane Elizabeth Williams.
When Elbert Newton Whitmire was four years old,
in 1884, the family returned to Georgia and- located
at Clayton, where Mr. Whitmire was reared on the
farm and received a common school education.
He began his business career in earlv life. For
five years, until 1905 he was identified with the man-
agement of the Norris Cotton Mills Company Store
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61
at Cateechee, in Pickens County, South Carolina.
While there he married Miss Hattie Wilson a school
teacher, of Belton, South Carolina. Mrs. Whitmire
is a daughter of John A. and Lucy (Horton) Wil-
son, both representatives of old line families in
South Carolina. She is also a granddaughter of
John A. Horton, who was a citizen of Anderson
County near Pendleton and well and favorably
known about "Old Pendleton."
In 1905 Mr. Whitmire moved to Spring Place,
Murray County, Georgia, and established the'Co-
inkmg <
s. He
two years. He then returned to Cateechee as man-
ager of the Norris Cotton Mill Company's store
and was again identified with that institution for
five years until 19 12, when he established his perma-
nent home at Greenville.
Mr. Whitmire has had an increasing part in the
commercial and financial enterprises of Greenville
and vicinity. For some time he was senior member
of Whitmire-Cozby Company, wholesale produce
merchants. In 1918 he took the office of cashier of
the Citizens Bank of Taylor. This bank is located
in the prosperous and growing community of Tay-
lor ten miles cast of Greenville. In September,
1919, he was one of the incorporators and largest
stockholders in The Textile Bank, which has been
established at West GwNenville in the midst of the
many cotton mills of that section, and as stated is
president and cashier.
Mr. Whitmire is a member of the Baptist Church
and a Mason. He and his wife have two children,
Lucy and Elbert Newton, Jr.
WiLUAM L. KiRKPATRiCK, M. D. A gradus^te in
medicine twenty-five years ago Doctor Kirpatrick
has had a busy and useful career, and for a num-
ber of vears has been the company physician and
surgeon at Trough in Spartanburg County.
'fliis town is distingfuished as the home of the
great cotton mills of the Pacolet Manufacturing
Company, one of the largest textile plants and fin-
est cotton mill villages in the South. As physician
and surgeon for the community and its environs
Doctor Kirkpatrick is a very active and busy prac-
titioner, and enjoys a high place in the affection of
the people he serves.
He was born in Haywood County, North Carolina,
in 1870. The Kirkpatricks were originally Scotch-
Irish Presbyterians among the pioneer settlers of
Mecklenburg County in North Carolina. Many of
them are still found there and through all the gen-
erations they have furnished prominent and pa-
triotic citizens and leading figures in the annals of
that historic section. Doctor Kirkpatrick is a son
of M. A. and Annie Laurie (Byers) Kirkpatrick,
and is a grandson of Silas F. Kirkpatrick, a native
of Mecklenburg County. M. A. Kirkpatrick was
a Confederate soldier and was severely wounded
at the battle of Seven Pines.
^ As a boy Doctor Kirkpatrick attended local
schools, acquired his academic training in Weaver
College at Asheville, and is a graduate with the class
of 1894 from Vanderbilt University Medical Depart-
ment in Nashville, Tennessee. For several years
he practiced in Haywood County, his native locality.
and then after a year spent in Texas came to Trough
in Spartanburg County. His magnificent home
built for him by the company is one of the finest
in Upper South Carolina. Doctor Kirkpatrick is
a member of the County, State and American Med-
ical associations, belongs to the Methodist Episcopal
Church South and is affiliated with the Masons,
Knights of Pythias and Loyal Order of Moose.
He married Miss Mary J. McCracken of Hay-
wood County, North Carolina. They have three
children, Orville Y., John W. and Mary S. Orville
has been in the United States Navy since 1914 and
is now in the Hospital Corps of the Navy, sta-
tioned at Atlanta.
James Edwin McDonald, Sr. Professional, busi-
ness and public distinctions in large number have
marked the career of James Edwin McDonald, Sr.,
as a lawyer and resident of Winnsboro. The esteem
in which he is held as a lawyer was indicated by
his election as president of the South Carolina Bar
Association.
Mr. McDonald was born near Richburg, Chester
County, December 15, 1856, son of Rev. Laughlin
and Malissa Lucinda (Stinson) McDonald, being
of Irish stock on his mother's side and of Scotch
through the McDonalds, a family that ' has been
identified with the Southern states since about 1760.
His father was for years a minister of the Associate
Reformed Presbyterian Church.
James Edwin McDonald was* not gifted with
physical strength but developed a robust physique
by active outdoor work and also developed a fond-
ness for the sports of hunting and fishing that still
prevails upon him occasionally. His education in
the country schools was supplemented by a full
course in Erskine College in Abbeville County,
where he graduated A. B. July 4, 1877. At that
time there was no law school in South Carolina
and having definitely determined to enter the legal
profession he studied in the offices of McCants and
Douglass from January, 1878, to January, 1880, when
he was admitted.
Mr. McDonald has been a resident of Winnsboro
nearly forty wears. He soon had a profitable client-
age, including his work as attorney for the Winns-
boro Granite Company. Later for some years he
was attorney for the Southern Power Company,
assistant counsel for the Southern Railway, and has
represented a number of corporate and business
firms.
So far as he could consistently without sacrificing
family interests he has responded to calls for pub-
lic service. From 1884 to November, 1892, he was
circuit solicitor. He has frequently been appointed
special judge, and in 1894 was elected mayor of
Winnsboro. He has served as county chairman of
the democratic party in Fairfield County, is a mem-
ber of the Winnsboro Commercial Club, is a Knight
Templar Mason and Shriner and a Knight of
Pythias. He has been true to the faith in which
he was reared and for many years has been an elder
in the Associate Reformed Church.
October 12, 1882, he married Miss Lillie M. Elliott.
Six children were born to their marriage.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
James Edwin McDonald, Jr., has for the past ten
years been the partner of his father in practice at
Winnsboro.
He was born at Winnsboro, January 8, 1886, son
of J. E. and Lillie (Elliott) McDonald. The career
of his honored father, a former president of the
South Carolina Bar Association, is told in preceding
sketch. The son was educated in Mount Zion Acad-
emy, graduated in 1906 from The Citadel at Charles-
ton, and took his law course in the University of
South Carolina, graduating LL. 6. in 1908. Since
then he has been in active practice with his father
and with increasing experience has added much to
the prestige of the firm.
July 6, 1908, he married Miss Lucy Pride Hcy-
ward of Columbia. Their three children are Lucy
Pride, J. E. Ill and Elizabeth ileyward.
LowRY S. Covin is one of the very active young
men in the business affairs of Columbia. Many of
the customers of the Palmetto National Bank came
to know him and appreciate hfs good service and
courtesy in the office of receiving teller in that insti-
tution. Mr. Covin, due to the increase of his pri-
vate business affairs, left the bank recently and now
is active manager of the Southern Motor Company,
one of the leading automobile concerns of the cap-
ital city.
He was born in 1887 at Mount Carmel in Abbe-
ville county, son of Phillip Augustus and Martha
Virginia (Sanders) Covin. His mother was a
daughter of Doctor Sanders, at one time a promi-
nent physician of Abbeville county. The Covin
family is of French Huguenot ancestry and mem-
bers of it were among the first settlers at Mount
Carmel in Abbeville county. Phillip A. Covin was
a Confederate soldier and was still in the Military
Hospital at Columbia, when Sherman's army occu-
pied the city.
Lowry S. Covin acquired a good common school
education at Mount Carmel and McCormick and was
sixteen years of age when in 1903 he acquired his
first banking experience, with the First National
Bank at Batesburg. H^ remained with that insti-
tution three years apd. in igoS came to Columbia
and entered the Palmetto National Bank. He was
receiving teller for seven years, finally resigning
in March, 1919, to give his entire time to the auto-
mobile business. About two years previously he
and a fellow associate in the Palmetto National
Bank, O. P. Loyal, had organized the Southern
Motor Company, and they are still owners of the
business. It has grown and prospered until it was
necessary for Mr. Covin to resign his connection
with the bank and devote his time and attention to
the affairs of the Southern Motor Company, of
which he is general manager. This company occu-
pies a first class plant on Sumter street and arc
distributors for the Scripps-Booth Six, the Ameri-
can Six and the Marmon cars and also the White
Truck.
Several years ago Mr. Covin also established the
Covin Candy Company, but later sold his interest
in that business. He was also a factor in the organ-
ization of the Carolina Wholesale Hardware Com-
pany, and is now vice president of the same. Mr.
Covin is also secretary of the Loyal-Covin Contract-
ing Company, doing a general building and construc-
tion business.
He is a member of the Automotive Trades Club
of Columbia, is a Mason and a Presbjrterian. He
married Miss Mary Beckman of Columbia and their
o!>e son is Lowry S., Jr.
Frederick Douglas Marshall was born at Fort
Mill, South Carolina, on August 14, 1875. He is the
son of John Wilson Marshall and Mary Clawson
Mar^all; his father. Captain Marshall was born
of Scotch and English ancestry, and descended from
the Charleston family of that name. He served in
the Confederate army with distinction throughout
the entire war and was a member of the famous
Hampton Legion, participating in all battles of his
command in Virginia. In 1865 he moved to York
County, where for many years he held a prominent
place and had the esteem of that community. His
wife, Mary Clawson Marshall, was the daughter
of Thomas I. Clawson and Martha Williams Qaw-
son. Her grandfather, Col. Thomas Williams, was a
member of the Legislature of South Carolina from
1820 to 1824, and lieutenant-governor during 1828 to
1831 ; his wife was Martha White Crawford. Colonel
Williams moved to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1835,
from which state he was sent to Congress in 1841.
This family was closely connected with the Wither-
spoons, Crawfords, Whites, and other prominent
families of York County, and it is but natural that
Fred Marshall should feel a special pride in his
people.
In 1905, December 14th, Mr. Marshall married
Miss Mallie Gladden Friday; their children are
Mary. Elizabeth and Mallie Margaret. Mrs. Mar-
shall is a descendant of some of Qie earliest settlers
of this state, whose names are synonymous with the
best traditions of South Carolina. , She is a mem-
ber of the Daughters of the American Revolution
and United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Fred Marshall was educated in the local schools
of Rock Hill, and also attended Clemson College.
At the beginning of the Spanish- American war he
volunteered and was First Sergeant, Company G,
Catawba Rifles, Rock Hill, First Regiment National
Guard. On leaving the army in 1898 he was con-
nected for some months with the Columbia Railway
Gas & Electric Company, afterwards with the South-
ern *Bell Telephone Company, Atlanta, Georgia. He
had several years experience when he was promoted
to district manager for South Carolina, which posi-
tion he resigned early in 1919 and organized the
Marshall-Summers Seed & Grain Company. During
his long residence in Columbia he has gained esteem,
both in business and social circles and has interested
himself in good government. He has been elected to
the city council. He is a member of the Columbia
Club and of the Rotary Club and is a member of St.
John's Episcopal Church. In fraternal circles he is
a Mason, Odd Fellow, Elk, Knight of Pythias,
Woodman of the World and a Moose.
ToLLivER Cleveland Callison is a lawyer and in
ten years has gained a dignified and successful posi-
tion as a member of the bar of Lexington.
He was born at the town of Callison in Edgefield
County July 17. 1884, a son of Preston Brooks and
Mattie Ella (White) Callison. His father was a
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
63
farmer and merchant and served two terms as a
member of the Legislature, and the Callison fam-
ily has for generations been prominent in Edgefield
County. Tolliver C. Callison was educated in the
public schools and Bailey Military Institute at
Greenwood and studied law at the University of
South Carolina. He was admitted to the bar in
the spring of 1909 and at once began practice at
Lexington. He is now a member ot the prominent
firm of Timmerman, Graham & Callison. Mr. Cal-
lison did some valuable work in his community dur-
ing the World war, serving as chief clerk to the
local board of the county and as a member of the
County Food Administration and did much to carry
the county over the top in various war campaigns.
He was lieutenant-colonel on the staff of Governor
Cooper. Politically he is a democrat.
He is affiliated with the Masons, Knights of
P>thias and Woodmen of the World. For three
years he was superintendent of the Baptist Sunday
School at Lexington. December 17, 191 3, he mar-
ried Miss Margaret Elizabeth Reel of Edgefield.
They have three children. Ruby, Tolliver Cleveland,
Jr., and Helen.
Daniel Franklin Efird. As a young man Daniel
Franklin Efird made a definite choice of agriculture
as the work and business of his life. A successful
farmer he has been for over thirty years, has been
a real leader in the agricultural activities of Lexing-
ton County, and from his farm his influence has
extended to many unrelated affairs, church, the
legislature, and practically all the interests of his
I community.
He was born in Lexington County January 25,
1861, a son of Rev. Daniel and Henrietta (Dreher)
Efird. Hispeople have long been prominent in the
Lutheran Church. The maternal grandfather was
Rev. Godfrey Dreher, a leader and organizer among
the Lutheran chuches of Lexington County. His
father, Rev. Daniel Efird, was not only a minister
of the Gospel but a farmer and merchant and at
one time treasurer of Lexington County.
Daniel Franklin Efird had experience during his
youth both as a farmer and in mercantile affairs.
He was educated in local schools, in Pine Ridge
.Academy and completed his junior year at New-
berry College. Since the age of twenty-one he has
given his business attention primarily to farming.
Has served in one oflicial capacity and another in
the management of the South Carolina State Fair
Association ; Urst as a member of the executive com-
mittee, then general superintendent for nine years
and since May 13, 1913, he has served as secretary.
He has always been interested in politics and
church. He was first elected a member of the South
Carolina Legislature in 1896 and was re-elected,
serving continuously until 1904, when he was chosen
a member of the State Senate. Some of his work
while in the Legislature was devoted to putting his
home county up6n a sound financial basis. Retiring
voluntarily from the Senate, he was chosen chairman
of the democratic party of his county, which posi-
tion he held for six years. As a young man Mr.
Efird served as lieutenant of a militia company.
During the World war he was chairman of the local
draft board from the time it was organized. Fra-
ternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows, and the Knights of Pythias.
Mr. Efird is one of the prominent Lutheran lay-
men of the South. In 1914 he became a charter
member of the United Lutheran Synod of the South,
one of the three general bodies governing the
Lutheran Church in America. He was chosen a
member of a committee which had charge of the
printing and other matters continuously until this
synod was merged into the one general body. In
January, 1919, an even greater distinction came to
him when he was one of the three men of the South
selected on the general committee of the United
Lutheran Church of America to look after the
printing for the united body.
Albert Clifton Hinds has had a very busy and
profitable law practice at Kingstree for the past ten
or twelve years, and has also come to be regarded
as one of the leading citizens of Williamsburg
county, a willing worker in every movement for
the welfare of his section and state.
Mr. Hinds was bom in Williamsburg county April
4, 1884, a son of Charles Magnus and Ellen (Jau-
don) Hinds, substantial farmers of that community.
He grew up on his father's farm, attended public
schools, and acquired a liberal education in the
University of South Carolina, graduating with the
A. B. degree in 1905 and receiving his law degree
in 1906. He Tias- sinde practiced at Kingstree, in
partnership with John A. Kelley under the name
of Kelley & Hinds.-- .Mr. Hinds is president of the
Kingstree Building andlLoan Association, president
of the Kingstree Board of Trade, and is also
chairman of the County Democratic tTommittee.
He was a delegate from South Carolina to the St.
Louis National Convention of 1916.
December 14, 191 1, Mr. Hinds married Miss
Nancy Meadors of Kingstree. Her father was
Rev. W. P. Meadors, a well known minister of the
Methodist Church.
Washington Price Timmerman, M. D. While
his own career has been that of a hard working and
successful physician and surgeon, since 1902 identi-
fied with the Batesburg community. Doctor Timmer-
man comes of a family whose interests show a nat-
ural inclination to politics and public affairs. He
is a brother of Hon. George Bell Timmerman of
Lexington, present solicitor of the Eleventh Judi-
cial Circuit and who in the campaign of 1919 made
a very close race for the democratic nomination for
Conarress.
Doctor Timmerman was born at the Timmerman
community, named in honor of the familv in Edge-
field County near Phillipi Church in 1869, son of
W. H. and Pauline (Asbill) Timmerman. ^
The late Doctor Washington Hodges Timmerman,
his father, who died in 1908. earned a place among
South Carolina's most distinguished citizens. He
was born in historic Edgefield County, his home and
plantation being at Timmerman. His birth occurred
in 1832. His father was Ransom Timmerman, who
married a member of the prominent Bledsoe fam-
ily of English ancestry. His grandfather was Jacob
Timmerman, who came from Germany and settled
in Edgefield County about 1770. Washington H.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Timmerman graduated in medicine at the Charles-
ton Medical College in 1854. In December, 1861,
he left his profession to become second lieutenant of
Company K, Seventeenth South Carolina Regiment
and was soon promoted to first lieutenant, and in
April, 1862, was elected Captain of his company.
He served until the following July when compelled
to resign on account of physical disability. In the
meantime he was under General Bragg and had
command of a regiment during the retreat from
Corinth. In November, 1864, he resumed duty as
captain of Company B, Second Regiment, State
troops. When Sherman's army entered the state
he was detailed by the governor for duty as phy-
sician in Edgefield County. Following the war he
practiced medicine in Edgefield County until 1892.
For several years he lived in Columbia where he
had prominent connections with business and finan-
cial affairs, and was also a resident of Batesburg,
and during that time was president of two of the
local banks. For some time he was president of
the Farmers Bank at Edgefield and a vice-president
of the Farmers and Mechanics Bank of Columbia.
With all the duties and burdens of a large medical
practice he became conspicuous in the public life
of his county and state. He was elected to the
Legislature in 1882, and again in 1890, resigning to
enter the State Senate for an unexpired term, be-
ing re-elected in 1892. He served as president pro
tem. of the Senate and became acting lieutenant-
fovernor when Judge Gary was promoted to the
upreme Bench. He was elected without opposi-
tion to the office of lieutenant-governor in 1894 and
served until January, 1897, following which he be-
came state treasurer and was twice elected to that
office without opposition. He served as a member
of the Constitutional Convention of 1895. Captain
Timmerman married in 1856 Pauline Asbill, who
died in 1873, the mother of six children. Captain
Timmerman in 1879 married Henrietta M. Bell.
Dr. W. Price Timmerman attended local and pri-
vate schools, and graduated in 189 1 from the Med-
ical College of the State of South Carolina at
Charleston. For the first two years he practiced
at Kirksly in what is now Greenwood County. Then
for nine years he practiced at Timmerman and in
1902 moved to Batesburg. He is one of the leading
physicians and surgeons of Lexington County, en-
joys a large general practice and is also local sur-
geon for the Southern Railway. He is a member
of the County, State, Tri-State and American Med-
ical associations and has been district councilor in
the State society. He is also a member of the
Association of Southern Railway Surgeons. He is
a member of the Democratic County Executive Com-
mittee, and for a busy doctor exercises considerable
influence in local and state politics.
In 189^ Doctor Timmerman married Miss Saidee
Moore of Abbeville County, who died leaving no
children. For his present wife he married Miss
Mary Swygert in 1905. They have four children:
W. Price, Jr., William Bledsoe, Mary Elizabeth and
John Swygert. Also an adopted daughter, Mrs.
Pauline Timmerman Asbell.
Ira Cromley Carson has for a number of years
been a prominent figure in financial, business and
civic affairs at Batesburg, where he is active vice
president of the First National Bank.
He was born in Edgefield (now Saluda) County
October 9, 1871, a son of Charles and Carrie (Crom-
ley) Carson. His father was a farmer and the
son grew up in the country, attending local schools.
He continued his education in the nigh school at
Johnston and in Clemson College.
Mr. Carson has been a factor in the life of Bates-
burg since 1906, when he was made cashier of the
First National Bank. He has been the active vice
president of that institution since 1917.
December 6, 191 1, Mr. Carson married Grace
Ridgell, of Batesburg, daughter of Dr. Edgar C.
and Ella (McFall) Ridgell. They have two chil-
dren, Edgar Charles, born in 1912, and Ella Carrie.
Alexander Scott Douglas. Since the close of
the war for a period of over half a century the
name Douglas has been associated with some of the
best achievements of the legal profession and many
influential connections with business, civic and soci^
life of Winnsboro.
Alexander Scott Douglas who died January 5,
1914, went to Winnsboro soon after coming out of
the Confederate army. He was bom in Fairfield
County, South Carolina, December 25, 1833, son of
Alexander and Jennet (Simonton) Douglas. His
grandparents, Alexander and Grace (Brown) Doug-
las came from County Antrim, Ireland, 1790, and
settled in Fairfield, South Carolina. Alexander
Douglas was a farmer and planter, and a man who
took a very prominent part in local affairs in the
Fairfield District.
Alexander Scott Douglas prew up in a rural at-
mosphere, and was greatly indebted to his mother
for his moral and spiritual development He at-
tended New Hope Academy and in 1853 at the age
of twenty graduated A. B. from Erskine College.
He studied law from that year until August 17,
1854, under Ex-Governor B. F. Perry at Greenville,
and then took the full law course at the University
of Virginia. He began practice at Spartanburg in
1856. He wielded a special influence in the affairs
of Upper South Carolina from January, 1857, to
August, 1861, as editor of the Spartanburg Express.
Much of the oublic opinion in that section of the
state was molded by the Express during those crit-
ical years. He served as a delegate to the State
Democratic Convention at Charleston in i860.
In August, 1861, Mr. Douglas left his chair as
editor and entered the Confederate army as second
lieutenant of Company C of the Thirteenth South
Carolina Volunteers, McGowan's Brigade, Jackson's
Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. For almost four
years he was steadily devoted to the fortunes of
the South as a soldier and was at the surrender of
Appomattox on April 9, 1865. At that time he .was
a lieutenant in Company C of the Thirteenth In-
fantry.
It was not many months after the war that Mr.
Douglas located at Winnsboro in January, 1^56, and
began the practice of law. In course of time he
had many influential connections and a large general
practice. For ten years he was attorney of the
Winnsboro National Bank, also attorney for the
Winnsboro Bank and for cotton mills and other
corporations. He has expressed his political faith
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
65
always throu^^h the democratic party, and became
an elder in the Presbyterian Church at Winnsboro
in 1866 and served in that post continuously aftd
also as superintendent of the Presbyterian Sunday
School for over forty years.
November 6, i860, he married Miss Mary E.
B>*ers. On December 17, 187&. he married Miss
Sallie McCants, who died September 20, 1901. By
his first wife he had three children and by his second
marriage four. One son is W. D. Douglas of
Winnsboro.
George James Graham* is one of the prominent
and historic characters in the life and affairs of
Williamsburg county. He was a Confederate sol-
dier during his youth, and while his business inter-
ests have always been closely allied with the farm,
he has played an interesting part in public affairs.
He was bom in Florence county February 23,
1842, son of Miles N. and Hester B. (Myers) Gra-
ham. His parents were also natives of this state,
and the family .were leading planters in ante-
bellum times. George James Graham grew up on
his father's farm, attended country schools, and at
the age of nineteen in 1861 entered the Confederate
army. He became a private in Company K of the
Sixth South Carolina Infantry, later being promoted
to corporal, and was with that regiment in all its
brilliant campaigns and marches and battles in Vir-
ginia and elsewhere. The war over he returned to
his farm, and so far as his public engagements per-
mitted has remained by preference a tiller of the
soil ever since.
Mr. Graham had a prominent part in the redemp-
tion of Williamsburg county from the reconstruc-
tion regime. He served as a lieutenant but fre-
quently in actual command of a local company of
"Red Shirts" and more than once he led these men
to scenes of trouble, due to riots caused by negroes
and carpet baggers, and was always prompt and
resourceful in taking the measures necessary for
peace and good order. Mr. Graham was elected
a member of the Legislature in 1878, serving one
term, and afterwards was a member Of the Consti-
tutional Convention. In 1891 he was elected sheriff
of Williamsburg county and in only one campaign
had opposition for that office! He was sheriff of
the county continuously for twenty years, being
at this time the oldest sheriff in the State of South
Carolina.
Gleni^ Walker Ragsdale is a lawyer of over
thirty-five years experience, and a man of the high-
est standing in his profession and in the commun-
ity of Winnsboro, where he h'as had his home for
many years.
He was bom in Fairfield County June 3, 1857.
a son of Elijah and Nancy (Stanton) Ragsdale. He
grew up on his father's farm, had a public school
education, and after that paid his own way while
training for a professional career. He spent two
years in Furman Vniversity at Greenville, and then
taught two years. He read law and was admitted
to the bar in 1882, and since that date has been en-
gaged in a general practice at Winnsboro. He has
been the recipient of numerous public honors, serv-
Vd. V— 5
ing in the Legislature two terms and sat as a dele-
gate in the Constitutional Convention of 1895.
April 16, 1887, Mr. Ragsdale married Miss
McMeekin, daughter of John W. McMeekttt: Five
children were born to their marriage: Ethel, Mrs.
John McLaurin, a farmer and druggist of Dillon,
South Carolina; Inez, Mrs. G. G. McLaurin, at-
torney at Dillon ; William Glenn, attorney in Winns-
boro, who served in the ambulance corps of the
American army in France; Robert Walker, a law
student in his father's office; and Edith McMeekin,
a student in Winthrop College.
Cyprian Melanchthon Efird. This is one of the
most widely known lawyers of South Carolina.
That reputation is based in part upon the author-
ship of Efird's "Digest of South Carolina Reports,"
comprising volumes from 43 to 60. This monu-
mental work was published in 1904 while he was
serving as state reporter. He is a lawyer of high
standing and of successful practice for over thirty-
five years and has been prominent in the bar and
public affairs of Lexin^on County.
He was born in Lexington County December 18^
1856, son of Rev. Daniel and Henrietta M. (Dreher-
Efird. His mother was a granddaughter of Godfrey
Dreher, a pioneer Lutheran minister in Lexington
County. His father also gave his life to the min-
istry of the Lutheran Church.
Mr. Efird grew up in a countty district, wofked
on a farm, prepared for college m the Pine Ridge
Academy in Lexington County, and graduate4
A. B. from Newberry College in 1877. In the mean-
time he taught school and studied law and was
admitted to the bar in June, 1882. Since then his
home and professional interests have been at Lex-
ington. After getting a secure status as a lawyfer,
he interested himself in politics. SvaS 'elected state
senator in 1892, serving four years, >Vas a m^hiber
of the Constitutional Convention of ;i89§i and Mrks
appointed state reporter in 1896, an office he' held
for over twelve years. He has sei'ved a^ a meirtbef
of the board of trustees of Newberry College; and
as a member of the board of directors Of th^
Theological Seminary of the United Synod of the
South. December 28, 1882, he married MisS Carrie
Boozer, a daughter of Dr. Jacob and Eva C. Boozer
of Lexington County.
Ezekiel Barmore Rasor. of Cross Hill, Laurens
County, was born in Abbeville County January 27,
1868, son of Ezekiel Barmore and Eliza (Latimer)
Rasor.
His parents were also natives of Abbeville
County, his maternal grandfather being Dr. Harri-
son Latimer. His paternal grandparents were Eze-
kiel and Pamelia (Barmore) Rasor, the former a
native of Abbeville and a son of Christian Rasor,
a native of Virginia and who was of Duti^h ances-
try. Ezekiel Rasor, Sr., was a farmer and died at
the age of seventy-five, while his wife died at the
age of forty-nine. Five of their eleven children are
Ezekiel Barmore Rasor grew up on a farm and
was educated in public schools, including the high
school at Honea Path. At the age of tWettty-oHe
he began merchandising at Cross Hill, and in 1906
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
became cashier of the bank of that town. He was
in that post of responsibility for ten years and since
then has been engaged in the general life and fire
insurance and also operates a small farm. He is
a member of the Baptist Church.
Edwin Chustopser Epps. While banking has
been his chief business for a number of years
the people of Williamsburg County regard Mr. Epps
as broadly representative of the county's leading
interests whether of a business, civic or patriotic
nature.
He was bom near his present home town of
Kingstree, April 7, 1873, son of a farmer and
merchant William Epps and wife, Mary R.- (Watts)
Epps. He was educated in public sdiools, spend-
ing about one year in school at Charleston, when
he was about fourteen. He also attended the
Patrick Militaiy Institute at Anderson, and his first
business experience was when as a boy he clerked
in his uncle's store at Kingstree— later serving in
like position at Manning. From 1896 to 1900 was
engaged in merchandising on his own account
Since 1901 he has been a banker, beinp^ selected in
that year cashier of the Bank of Kmgstree. He
remained with that institution five years, resigning
in 1906, to become cashier of the Bank of Wil-
liamsburg, the largest financial institution of the
county.
He was also one of the organizers and served
as the first president of the Kmgstree Insurance,
Real Estate and Loan Company and is an ex-presi-
dent of the Williamsburg County Fair Association.
He served as trustee of the graded schools of Kings-
tree continuously from 1906 to I9i6> and spared no
effort on his part to make those schools adequate to
the fulfillment of every aim of education. Mr.
Epps is largely interested in the establishment of
the tobacco market at Kingstree and serves as
director in several other of the town's enterprises.
Like many South Carolina bankers he d^oted
much of his time during the war to the success
ojf the various patriotic campaigns. He was chair-
man for Williamsburg County in the first, third,
fourth and fifth Liberty Loans. He represented
the county in State Senate for two terms from
1910 to 1918. In which body he served on the
important committees on Education and Finance
and was chairman of the Committee on Banking
and Insurance. Mr. Epps is a trustee of the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church South.
May I, 1906, he married Nannie L. Snider of
Orangeburg County. They have two children, Mary
Catherine and Carlyle.
Joseph Benjamin Johns is supermtendent of the
South Carolina Industrial School and Farm at Flor-
ence. He is an educator of ripe experience, and
his personal qualifications make him admirably
adapted for the task of superintending the educa-
tion and training of the boys who are members of
this state institution.
Mr. Johns was bom in Newberry County May
16, 1875, a son of William Wesley and Elliott
(Busby) Johns. He grew up on his father's farm,
attended high school at Cherokee Springs, and grad-
uated in 1897 from Furman University. Mr. Johns
for sixteen years was engaged in school work in
Greenville and Spartanburg counties, and for ei^t
years of that time had charge of the State High
School. June i, 1913, he took up his present duties
at the Industrial School at Florence. He has 190
boys under his care and supervision, and operates
the farm of 580 acres as an adjunct to the school.
Mr. Johns is affiliated with the Masonic Order
and Woodmen of the World, and is a member of
the Baptist Church. September 4, i8g8, he married
Mary EUie Stroud, of Greenville County. They
have two children, William Clayton and Bonnie
Kate.
LuECO GuNTER^ who for six srears served as super-
visor of rural schools for South Carolina, has re-
cently accepted the newly established Chair of Edu-
cation at Furman University. Hie is one of the best
known educators in South Carolina, recognized as
a leader in the educational thought of the state.
He was bom in Aiken County, South Carolina,
near what is now the Town of Wsigener, March 26,
1879, son of James A. and Theoria E. Gunter. His
early schooling was supplied by the public schools
near and at Wagener until the fall of 1895. Dur-
ing the school year 1895-96 he attended the Black-
vifle High School, preparatory for college. He then
entered South Carolina College, now the Univer-
sity of South Carolina^ in the fall of 1896, and re-
ceived his A. B. degree in 1900. During 1900-03,
while teaching at Columbia, he took a post-graduate
course at the university and received his Master
of Arts degree in 1903.
Professor Gunter was principal of Waverley
Graded School, a suburban school of Columbia, in
1900-01, and during 1901-03 was a teacher in the
Presbyterian High School of Columbia. He became
superintendent of the Beaufort public schools in
the fall of 1903. and remained as superintendent
until the summer of 1910. At that date he was
appointed assistant state superintendent of educa-
tion, but resigned the offices in the summer of 191 1
to become superintendent of the public schools at
Rock Hill. He was there three years, and in July,
1914, accepted the post of state supervisor of rural
schools, resigning that position after six years of
efficient work to take the Chair of Education at
Furman University.
Professor Gunter married, August 10, 1904, Miss
Laura K. Perry, of Columbia.
LeRoy Lee, who has been a lawyer and public
official of Williamsburg County for many years,
had just graduated in law when the Spanish-Ameri-
can war broke out, and in July, 1898, he volunteered
as a private in Anderson's Heavy Artillery, serving
with that organization until honorably discharged on
October 16, 1898.
Mr. Lee was born in Florence County, South
Carolina, May 21, 1875, son of Henry B. Lee, a
prominent planter of that section of the state, and
Margaret J. (Lynch) Lee. LeRoy Lee supple-
mented his public school education by three years
in the University of South Carolina in the literary
course, and graduated LL. B. from the law depart-
ment in June, 1898. He began prafctice at Kings-
tree, and has always enjoyed a good business, and
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
67
since 1900 has filled the official responsibilities of
connty attorney.
July 12, 1900, he married Eva C. Riser, of New-
berry. They have one child, Serena Margaret.
Geqige Walter Summer. Largely with an equip-
ment that was due to a determined purpose and
utilization of meager opportunities during youth,
George Walter Summer began an active business
career as a merchant at Newberry thirty-five years
ago, and since then has become one of the real
leaders and executives in the broader commercial
affairs of that city.
He was bom at Lexington, South Carolina, July
15, 1861. His ancestors came to America from Ger-
many about 1775. He is a son of George W. and
Martha D. Sununer. His father was a Confederate
soldier, and died in a hospital in Virginia on July
13, i8o2. George Walter Summer therefore never
knew his father, and the mfluences upon his
formative character were derived largely from his
mother, a woman of beautiful character. He grew
op on a farm, participated in its labors as soon as
his strength permitted, and had only a country
school education. In November, 1884, he took upon
himself the role of merchant in Newberry, and has
been a busy factor in that city ever since. Some
of the larger institutions with which he has been
identified are the Mollohon Manufacturing Com-
pany, of which he was president; Newberry Ware-
house Company, which he served as president; the
Commercial Bank of Newberry; Security Loan &
Investment Company of Newberry, in all of which
he has been a director. Mr. Summer was the orig-
inator of the Summer Brothers opened m Novem-
ber, 1884. For five years he was a trustee of the
Newberry graded schools, and is now trustee of
Newberry College.
Mr. Summer is a Shriner, Mason, and a Knight
of Pythias, is a Lutheran in religion and a demo-
crat m politics.
Outside of business he has found his greatest
pleasure in his home circle. On October 13, 1881, he
married Miss Polly L. Long. They became the
parents of ten children, seven of whom are living.
FRANas FiSK Johnson found his real vocation
when a young man, and though he allowed his ener-
gies to be diverted by a professional career for a
few years, he then returned permanently to the
business of planting and agriculture, in which he
is one of the leading exponents in Bamberg County.
Mr. Johnson was born in Orangeburg County,
not far from the scene of his present activities, on
December 28, i860. He is a member of a family
that has been in South Carolina from Revolution-
ary times. Both his father, Alexander Hamilton
Johnson, and his grandfather, Dr. W. S. Johnson,
were successful physicians and surgeons and prac-
ticed for many years in the old Barnwell District.
Dr. Alexander Hamilton Johnson married Addie
Powers Hays, who was born in the present Bam-
berg County section of Barnwell County, her father
being a native of Ireland.
Francis Fisk Johnson was the third in a family
of seven children, and was educated in the private
and public schools of Bamberg. He began farming
when a boy, but later studied dentistry and prac-
ticed that profession about eight years. Since then
he has given his entire attention to farming. He
has about 1,000 acres, most of it under cultiva-
tion. He is one of the largest cotton growers in
Bamberg County. Mr. Johnson is affiliated with
the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Pythias.
Levi M. Ceol is proprietor of Cecil's Business
College at Anderson. This is an institution which
in the ten years since it was established has per-
formed an indispensable service in the training of
young men and women for business careers, and
the value of its work has been greatly enhanced by
the fact that Mr. Cecil is himself a business man
of wide ahd generous experience and training.
He was born at Thomasville, North Carolina,
March 22, 1880, a son of Jesse W. and Elizabeth
(Moffitt) Cecil, both deceased. Thev were also
natives of North Carolina, and his father was a
minister of the Reformed Church of the United
States.
As a boy in his native state Mr. Cecil attended
the Catawba College, and completed the course of
the Smithfield Business College in North Carolina
and the Philadelphia Business College. For several
years he was employed in general office work in
Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina, and
acquired a practical training which has been inval-
uable to him since directing the affairs of the busi-
ness college which he established at Richmond in
1909. Many students from Anderson and adjoining
counties have been enrolled and have gone from
the college well qualified for business work, and
some of them are among the prominent young busi-
ness leaders of the state today.
Besides the • management of the business college
Mr. Cecil is secretary and assistant treasurer of the
Anderson Mattress and Sprinj^ Bed Company and
of the Anderson Underwear Company, two of the
cit/s best industrial organizations. He is a deacon
in the First Presbyterian Church, and both he and
his wife are prominent socially. In 1910 Mr. Cecil
married Inez F. Felder, of Summerton, South
Carolina.
Sidney Jacob Derrick, who in June, 1918, was
called to the responsibilities of Newberry College,
was awarded his well earned degree Bachelor of
Arts from that institution about a quarter of a cen-
tury previously, and had long been identified with
the preparatory and collegiate departments. Mr.
Derrick was one of the broad-minded educators and
social and religious leaders in the state.
He was bom in Lexington County, South Carolina,
November 10, 1867, and as a farm boy had the
opportunity to attend only a few brief school terms
in his neighborhood. Later he attended Mount
Tabor High School in Newberry County, and in the
fall of 1888 entered the sophomore class of New-
berry College. He was not prepared to carry all
the studies in this class, but made up his ''condi-
tions," and though he had to discontinue his resi-
dence at college for several terms, teaching to pay
his way, he kept up his work and remained with
his class and when he graduated in 1892 was awarded
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
second honors, and also the medal for the best
senior essay.
Then followed a period of teaching, and in 1896
he resigned the principalship of the Lexington High
School to accept the principalship of the Prepara-
tory Department of Newberry College. His use-
fulness in that institution has been a matter of
steady growth. In 1903 he was appointed assistant
in the Department of History and in 1906 elected
professor of history and economics. From the con-
genial duties of that chair he was called on June 4,
1018, to the presidency, to succeed John Henry
Harms, when Doctor Harms teft Newberry to oc-
cupy a pastorate in Philadelphia.
While busied with many interests outside the
strict routine of teaching Mr. Derrick hais been con-
stantly a student. He was carrying on studies while
teaching which qualified him for the degree of Mas-
ter of Arts awarded by Newberry College in 1897.
He also attended summer schools at Cornell Univer-
sity in 1 90 1 and Columbia- University in 1907.
At the time of his eleclion to the presidency a
college bulletin contained an article written by E.
B. Setzler which may be properly quoted concerning
some other interesting facts in the career of Mr.
Derrick.
"Professor Derrick has always manifested a broad
interest in educational matters. He served two years
on the Board of Education of Lexington county, and
twelve years on the Newberry County Board; and
he is at present a member of the State Board of
Education, having been appointed by Governor Man-
ning in April, 1916. The Governor also appointed
him chairman of the Newberry County Exemption
Board in April, 191 7.
"Professor Derrick has likewise shown an active
interest in the work of the church. He was confirmed
as a member of Holy Trinity Lutheran church. Lit-
tle Mountain, in May, 1893, during the pastorship
of Rev. S. L. Nease. He has been a member of the
Board of Deacons of the Church of the Redeemer,
Newberry, since 1899, and chairman of that board
since 1912; and for the last five years he has been
a member of the Lutheran Board of Publication.
"In 1898 Professor Derrick was married to Miss
Mary V. Hiller, of Lexington, and to her he at-
tributes — and rightly, we imagine — much of the suc-
cess which he has achieved.
"President Derrick is — as the above sketch plainly
shows — preeminently a self-made man. The church,
through the Board of Trustees of the College, has
now called him to the biggest task to which he could
possibly have inspired. His friends are confident
that he will meet its demands with the same un-
yielding determination which has characterized his
efforts in the past. The measure of his success,
however, will depend largely upon the way in which
the friends of the college rally to his support."
Thad Jerome Cottingham. While his home and
principal interests for a number of years have been
at Lake City, Mr. Cottingham is widely known
all over that section of South Carolina on account
of his banking interests. He has made banking a
profession, and has exhibited striking ability ii\
financial matters, and was active in the organiza-;
tion and in the subsequent management of several
« well known banks in his part of the state/
Mr. Cottingham was born in Marion County,
September 20, 1883, a son of Daniel Sinclair and
Ida (Legette) Cottingham. His father was a sub-
stantial farmer and grew up in the country, at-
tending first the public schools of New Holly, and
was a student in Wofford College from 1906 to
1903. The following two years he was a teacher,
and for another two years kept a set of books for
a merchandise company. Since then all his work
has been in the banking business. For two years
he was cashier of the Bank of Olanta and since
1909 has been identified with the Farmers and
Merchants National Bank of Lake City. He was
•cashier qntil 191 5, then becoming vice president
and became president in September, iQio. Mr. Cot-
tingham is also vice president and executive officer
of the Farmers and Merchants Bank at Cowards,
helping to organize that institution. He reorganized
the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Florence, of
which he is president. He organized the Farmers
and Merchants Bank of PamplicQ since September,
1919, also the Farmers and Merchants Bank of
Johnsonville, and reorganized the Bank of Cades,
South Carolina. He is also president of the Peo-
ples Bank at Moncks Corner, South Carolina.
Mr. Cottingham is a York Rite Mason and
Shriner, a member of the Benevolent and Pro-
tective Order of Elks and for the past eleven years
has been a steward of the Methodist Episcopal
Church South. While a very busy man he has
found time for recreation in the out of doors, and
when business permits he delights in hunting, fish-
ing and tennis.
April 25, 1905, he married Margaret Cox of iiow-
land, North Carolina. 'Her father was Chalmers
B. Cox, a farmer in that state. The four children
of Mr. and Mrs. Cottingham are William Arrow-
wood, Harriet Cox, Chalmers Daniel and Thad
Jerome, Jr.
Oliver Preston Richardson, who served as a
captain in the Eighty-first Division in France, was
one of the prominent young business men of GaflFney
and had resumed his civil pursuits and occupations
only a brief time after his honorable discharge when
death stayed his hand on August 31, 1919.
He was born near Spartanburg May 25, 1884, a
son of W. and Anna (Wingo) Richardson. His
parents were natives of South Carolina and were a
well known family of the upper part of the state.
Captain Richardson attended school at Charlottes-
ville, Virginia, and was a graduate of Wake Forest
University, North Carolina. He was in business for
several years as a cotton broker at Milledgeville,
Georgia, and returning to his home state was with
the well known firm of Jennings & Bryant at Spar-
tanburg and Greenville.
Early in the war he joined an Officers Training
Camp and was made captain of the Three Hundred
and Sixteenth Field Artillery in the Eighty-first
. Division. He was sent overseas, and spent, nine
months in France. After his return he engaged in
his former business, until his death. He was well
known and enjoyed the highest esteem of his busi-
ness and civic associates at Gaffney.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
69
Captain Richardson married Miss Irene Bayne
Wheat, a daughter of H. D. and Anna (Cannon)
Wheat, of Gaffney, and member of a well known
family of that section. Captain Richardson is sur-
vived by one daughter, Anna Wheat Richardson.
He was an active member of the First Presbjrterian
Church of GaflFney.
James Strong Moffatt, D. D. President of
Erskine College since 1907, Doctor Moffatt has spent
over thirty years in the ministry of the Associate
Reformed Presbyterian Church. While he is not
a native of South Carolina and while much of his
work has been in other states, he represents one of
the old and distinguished families of earlier genera-
tions of South Carolina. In his present office he has
the satisfaction of presiding over one of the oldest
institutions of Christian education in the South.
Erskine College has recently celebrated the
eightieth anniversary of its founding in 1839. At
the time of its organization there was not a single
institution in South Carolina that afforded the ad-
vantages of a college training under Christian in-
fluences. It opened its doors under the presidency
of Rev. E. E. Pressly. Robert C. Grier was the
president from 1847 to 1858 and again from 1865 to
1871. For twenty-eight years its president was
Dr. William Moffatt Grier, whose daughter is the
wife of Dr. James Strong Moffatt.
Many of the ablest men whose careers are de-
scribed in these pages acknowledge their debt to
Erskine College for some of the most stimulating
influences of their early lives. Erskine College,
while not aspiring to the rank of a university, has
for years done thorough work as a co-educational
institution. Under the presidency of Doctor Moffatt*
it is better equipped than ever. The campus has
six modem buildings, and the facilities for a thor-
ough college education are supplied in the midst of
a quiet and classic atmosphere and with every safe-
guard to the spiritual and moral welfare of the
students.
Dr. James Strong Moffatt was born in Fulton
County, Arkansas, July 17, i860, a son of Rev.
William Samuel and Martha Jane (Wilson) Mof-
fatt. The Moffatts are a Scotch family that came
from Scotland and settled in Chester County, South
Carolina, in 1772. Doctor Moffatt's great-great-
grandfather Moffatt was an American soldier in
the Revolution. His grrandfather was a merchant
in Greenville Cotmty, South Carolina, where was
bom Rev. W. S. Moffatt, who spent the greater
part' of his life as a minister of the Associate Re-
formed Presbyterian Church. Martha Jane Wilson
was born in Tennessee.
When James Strong Moffatt was a child his par-
ents moved to Uniontown, Belmont County, Ohio,
where his father was pastor of a church and where
James Strong Moffatt lived until he was nearly
Sown. For a time he attended school at St.
airsville in that county, also attended school
at Xenia in Western Ohio, spent two years as a
student in Erskine college and two years in Mus-
kingum College at New Concord, Ohio, where he
graduated A. B. in 1883. He graduated in 1S86
from the United Presbyterian Theological Sem-
inary at Allegheny* Pennsylvania. He also did post-
gradiiate work in philosophy in Western University,
now the University of Pittsburg, and in recent years
Cooper College in Kansas awarded him the degree
Doctor of Divinity.
He was ordained to the Associate Reformed Pres-
byterian ministry in 1886, and his present work was
as pastor of the First Church at Charlotte, North
Carolina, in 1886-87. He was pastor at Chester,
South Carolina, from 1887 to 1907, for a period of
twenty years. On January i, 1907, he was called
to the presidency of Erskine College at Due West.
He is also a trustee and treasurer of 'the Associate
Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary at
Due West.
Doctor Moffatt is president of the Farmers and
Merchants Bank of Due West. November 22, 1886,
he married Jennie Moflfatt Grier, daughter of the
late Dr. William Moffatt Grier and his wife Nan-
nie (McMorris) Grier of Newberry County. Doctor
and Mrs. Moffatt have nine children.
WnxiAM Blackburn Wilson. This is the name
of a prominent lawyer of Rock Hill. Distinction
and eminence as a lawyer and public leader at-
taches to the name in a previous generation as a
result of the services and abilities of William Black-
burn Wilson, Sr. Today there are two William
Blackburn Wilsons, he of the third generation being
also a lawyer. . .
This branch of the Wilson family is of English
origin. They came fi"om England about the close
of the Revolutionary war and settled in the lower
section of South Carolina, in Colleton County. The
grandfather of William Blackburn Wilson of Rock
Hill was Rev. William Stanyarne Wilson, a son of
John Wilson (who had married Miss Stanyarne of
Johns Island). Rev. William S. Wilson was a man
of education and the highest scholarly attainments.
He married a Miss Blackburn, daughter of Pro-
fessor George Blackburn. Professor Blackburn, a
graduate of the University of Dublin, became a
professor of mathematics and astronomy after com-
ing to America, and was connected with the facul-
ties of Asbury College, Baltimore, William and Mary
College and the South Carolina College. He was
also a technical 'expert on the boundary commission
which fixed the boundary between North and South
Carolina.
The late William Blackburn Wilson, father of
the present holder of that honored name, was a law-
yer whose leadership and abilities gave him a just
fame all over the State of South Carolina. For
many years he practiced at Yorkville, and his posi-
tion in the profession made that city a distinctive
point in the annals of the South Carolina Bench
and Bar. He married Arrah Minerva Lowry, of
Yorkville, South Carolina.
Their son William Blackburn Wilson was born
at Yorkville, January 12, 1850, and was educated in
private schools. He attended schools taught by Dr.
Robert Lathan and by Professor William Currell,
two teachers of note in YorkvillcL and was also a
pupil in the Kings Mountain llfifetary School un-.
der Col. Asbury Coward, In 1867 he entered the
University of South Carolina, where he graduated
with the class of 1869. He at opce took up the
study of law under his father, was admitted to the
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
bar January 9, 1871, just two days before reaching
his majority, and beginning his practice at Yorkville
moved to Rock Hill in February, 1876, and that cit>'
has been his home for over forty years. A man
forceful in every way— fine physique, strong mental
caliber, remarkable insight, and splendid advocate-
always standing squarely in his client's shoes, he
has enjoyed a large general practice, and at different
times has represented some of the chief business
and industrial leaders of York County and else-
where in the state, and his name has appeared in
connection with many important trials. Shortly after
his admission to the bar — on account of his alleged
connection with the Ku Klux Klan— he concluded
that it would be convenient to go to Texas ; and he
remained there several years — until the excitement
was over. He was always proud of the occasion
of his going, and often spoke entertainingly of his
varied western experiences, as cowboy, etc.
Commencing in 1884, he was elected and served
two terms in the Lower House and then one term
in the State Senate from York County (without
offering a seccyid tiipe), and was one of that coun-
ty's representatives in the Sute Constitutional Con-
vention of 1895. He is a communicant of the Epis-
copal Church, and a Mason, and a friend indeed to
all his friends.
Mr. Wilson is owner of valuable farming inter-
ests, and on many occasions has shown his public
spirit in behalf of the community. He was es-
pecially active in procuring for Rock Hill Winthrop
College, now one of the state's finest educational
institutions. He was also the founder of Rock Hill
Land and Town Site Company, which built Oakland,
the residential section of Rock Hill.
Mr. Wilson owns and with his family occupies
one of the beautiful homes in Soutfi Carolina, sit-
uated in the Oakland section, where he and his wife
are always at home to their many friends.
In 187s Mr. Wilson was most happily married to
Miss Isabella Hinton Miller, daughter of Dr. W. R.
Miller of Raleigh, North Carolma, and they have
ten children, viz. Arrah Isabella, wife of Rev. J.
W. C. Johnson of Gastonia, North Carolina; Wil-
liam Blackburn, Jr., whose early career as a lawyer
gives promise that he will add to the distinctions
of his honored name; Miss Fannie Britton Wilson,
a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and
also a member of her father's law firm; William
Miller, lawyer; Margaret, wife of C. J. Walker, of
Rock Hill; Minerva Stanyarne, widow of J. M.
Wylie; Dr. Oscar Wilson, of Spartanburg; Miss
Loulie Meriwether, a professor of Latin in St.
Mary's College at Raleigh, North Carolina; York
Lowrjr Wilson; and Mary Blackburn Wilson; and
also eighteen grandchildren.
On April 30, 1920, after the above sketch had been
prepared, Mr. Wilson patiently yielded to the last
call, from a sickness that had come upon him nearly
four months previously. The issue of life— so far as
he was permitted to take part in it— was most
bravely and heroically fought; for time and time
again it seemed that the end was at hand, as hu-
manlv speaking it would in all reason have been
but for his sturdy constitution and his wonderful
will power. His taking and the manner of it has
left a deep sorrow upon the hearts of his family
and his friends, while at the same time there was a
s^pathetic response throughout and beyond the
limits of his native coun^. He was indeed an all-
round mah: of commanding stature, virile in body,
alert in mind, gentle in spirit, tender in heart;
and so he had to be — as he was in very truth;— a
loving husband and father, a warm friend, a faith-
ful lawyer, an upright citizen, a diligent seeker after
truth. "By their fruits ye shall know them."
Requiescat in pace.
Franklin William Fairey is distinguished
among the business men of Williamsburg County
by his evident capacity for successfully handling
varied interests. He is a lawyer by profession and
training, is also a banker, an extensive farmer, and
his advice and assistance hav^ been considered in-
valuable in a number of important civic move-
ments and public improvements in his home com-
munity.
Mf. Fairey was born at B ranch ville, South Caro-
lina, February 26, 1880, son of Franklin Ernest and
Laura E. (Berry) Fairey. As he grew up, spend-
ing most of his early years on his father's planta-
tion, he attended public schools, the Carlisle Fitting
School and Wofford College. He finished his edu-
cation in the Smith Business College at Lexington,
KentucW, and for two years was a general mer-
chant. In the meantime he studied law and in
1904 was admitted to the bar, and for three years
was the industrious partner in practice with John
A. Kelley of Kingstree. He gave up his active
professional work to become cashier of the Bank
of Kingstree, an office he has held to the present
time. Re is also a director of the Williamsburg
.Milling Company, is president of the Williams-
burg Motor Company, a firm handling automobiles,
and is individual owner of about 4,000 acres of
the rich and productive soil around Kingstree. His
farming operations are carried on with the aid of
many workers and much equipment. He oper-
ates twenty-five plows. Mr. Fairey helped give
Kingstree its modem improvements of water supply
and electric light, and has laid out several addi-
tions to the town. He has served as alderman and
mayor pro tem, and is deeply interested in every
movement affecting his community. He is chair-
man of the Building Committee of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, and he has served as a member
of the board of stewards of the same church for
ten years.
June 27, 1907, Mr. Fairey married Miss Alma
Boyd Kelley, daughter of a former law partner,
John A. Kelley. To their marriage were bom five
children: Elizabeth, Franklin William, Jr., Vir-
ginia, Rachel and John Kelley.
Waddy Thompson is known all over the South
as an author, historian and journalist, and bears
a name which would readily be associated even by
school children with the most brilliant epochs and
personalities of South Carolina.
His great-grandfather also bore the name Waddy
Thompson, and as a judge and chancellor was one
of South Carolina's most distinguished jurists. One
of the most eminent South Carolinians and Ameri-
cans of the first half of the nineteenth century was
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
71
Hon. Waddy Thompson II, a son of Judge Waddy
Thompson. He represented South Carolina in Con-
gress, but is best known through bein^ minister to
Mexico at the time Texas secured its mdependence
from that country and for the assistance he gave
to the Americans whose lives were imperiled in
Mexico at the time. His work "Reminiscences of
Mexico/' published in 1846, contains many thrilling
accounts, and is particularly valuable as an author-
itative explanation of the history of the relations
of the United States with the neighboring republic.
Mr. Waddy Thompson is a son of the late Gov-
ernor Hugh S. Thompsonj who was the fifty-second
governor of South Carohna. Governor Thompson
was bom at Charleston in 1836, son of Henry Taze-
well and Agnes (Smith) Thompson. He graduated
from The Citadel, the military college of South
Carolina at Charleston, in 1856. In 1858 he was
made lieutenant professor of French in the Arsenal
Military Academy at Columbia, and later was cap-
tain and professor of Belles Lettres in The Citadel
at Charleston. During the war he served bravely
as captain of the Battalion of State Cadets in Char-
leston and other parts of the state. His command
made a glorious record in the war. It fired the
first gun, January 9, 1861, upon the Federal war-
ship Star of the West in Charleston Harbor, and
subsequently participated in the defense of Charles-
ton, Fort Stmiter and the South Carolina coast.
This organization was not disbanded until after the
stirrendcr of Johnston's army.
After the war he took, charge of the Columbia
Male Academy, but in 1876 was called to larger and
more important duties when he was elected state
superintendent of education. He was re-elected in
1878 and i8to. He had in the meantime taken an
active part in the redemption of South Carolina
from carpet bag rule. The educational system of
South Carolina owes a distinctive debt to Hugh
Smith Thompson.^ While the carpet bag regime
brou^t min to every department of state life, the
effect was particularly disastrous upon schools, and
it is almost literally true that the state had no sys-
tem of education when Mr. Thompson entered upon
his duties as state superintendent. His name is
intimately associated with reforms which cleared
the educational system from debt and restored it
to life and vitality. Against strong opposition he
established the plan of supporting the schools by
local taxes. He instituted summer normal schools
for the training of teachers, and generally popular-
ized education when the attitude of most people
was one of apathy.
In 1882 Hugh Smith Thompson was elected gov-
ernor of South Carolina and re-elected in 1884. Be-
fore the close of his second term, in July, 1886, he
resigned to become assistant Secretary of the United
States Treasury under President Cleveland. In the
absence of his chief he acted as Secretary of the
Treasury. As chief magistrate of South Carolina.
Governor Thompson discharged his duties with thor-
ough abflity and was elected for a second term with-
out opposition. As acting head of the treasury he
bandied Tarious responsibilities masterfully. This
was particularly true when in the financial panic of
188^ the power of the Government was invoked to
prevent a money depreciation from running into
disaster. In that Federal post he added greatly to
the fame associated with his name in his home
state.
In February, 1889, he was made demdcratic mem-
ber of the Civil Service Commission by President
Cleveland. His appointment was not confirmed by
the Senate during the closing days of Cleveland's
term, but he was reappointed by President Harrison
in May, 1889. His colleague on the commission was
Theodore Roosevelt. He continued a member of
the commission until May, 1892. At that date he
resigned to become comptroller of the New York
Life Insurance Company of New York City, and
served there with credit for several years. When
President Cleveland was making up his cabinet
for his second administration, he offered Governor
Thompson the choice of the Secretaryship of the
Interior or the Postmaster Generalship, showing the
esteem and confidence which President Cleveland re-
posed in him. Governor Thompson died November
15. 1904. In every position, state, national and in
private life, Governor Thompson showed the high-
est qualities. He was conscientious, energetic and
capable, a man of marked tact and cotfrtesy, and
possessed the rare quality of adminisftrative states-
manship.
In 1856 he married Elizabeth Anderson Clark-
son, daughter of Thomas B. Clarkson of Columbia.
Their son, Waddy Thompson, was bom in Colum-
bia August 13, 1867. He acquired a liberal educa-
tion in the University of South Carolina, graduat-
ing A. B. in 1887, and for the following eight years
engaged in newspaper work, and since then has
been in the life insurance and publishing business.
Mr. Waddy Thompson has hail aL busy career as
a historian. He is known as author of "A History
of the United States," published in 1904; ''A Pri-
mary History of the United States," published in
1910; and more recently of "History of the People
of the United States," and ''History of the United
States for Beginners."
Mr. Thompson is a member of the Columbia
Club, and of the Round Table Gub of New Or-
leans, is a Phi Beta Kappa, and also a member of
the Alpha Tau Omega. He is a member of the
Louisiana Historical Society, and the United Sons
of Confederate Veterans. While Mr. Thompson
is a Columbian, his business office is at Atlanta, in
the Candler Annex. He married Pauline Spain,
of Darlington, South Carolina, October 30, 1895.
John M. Sifly. In the City of Orangeburg, where
he was bom and reared, John M. Sifly has been a
business man for the past fifteen years, and while
he had the struggles and anxieties of. a man start-
ing with little capital, his position is now one of
substantial credit and his establishment is regarded
as an important commercial asset of the city.
Mr. Sifly was bom at Orangeburg February 5.
1879, and acquired a liberal education at Woftord
College in Spartanburg. In 1905 he engaged in
business as local representative and distributor of
some standard lines of buggies and waj^ns. With
the growing popularity of the automobile he began
the distribution of that vehicle, and has since con-
ducted both lines, handling also the accessories of
the trade. Mr. Sifly is the authorized Ford agent
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
at Orangeburg, and conducts a finely equipped serv-
ice station, and his establishment throughout is one
of the most complete and modern in the state.
Mr. Sifly has never established a home of his
own through marriage. His father was the late
John L. Sifly, a native of Charleston, whose remote
ancestors were English and German. The Sifly
family has been in South Carolina for many genera-
tions, and some members of the earlier generations
were Revolutionary soldiers. John L. Sifly earned
the love and respect of his fellow men through the
many arduous years he devoted to the Methodist
ministry. He became a traveling or itinerant min-
ister in 1867, and gave forty years to the duties
assigned him by the Methodist Conference. After
he was superannuatea he lived for seven or eight
years in Orangeburg, until his death in 1907. Rev.
John L. Sifly married Sue (Townsend) Sifly, who
was born at Cokesbury, near Greenwood, South
Carolina, and her people were also old South Caro-
linians of English descent. Her father, Rev. Joel
Townsend, was also one of the pioneer Methodist
ministers. John M. Sifly has one brother, M. T.
Sifly, an Orangeburg merchant, and his sister Lillie
is die wife of Dr. J. L. JeflFries of Spartanburg.
Mr. Sifly is a Methodist and is afliliated with the
Lodge of Elks at Orangeburg.
John Frampton Maybank. Representing one of
the old and historic families ,of Charleston, John
Frampton Maybank has for many years been identi-
fied with its business affairs as a cotton merchant.
He was born in Hampton Coimty January 31,
1870. His original ancestor, David Maybank, came
from England and settled in Christ Church Parish
of Charleston about 1680. One of the descendants
was Joseph Maybank, who served as a lieutenant-
colonel of the Berkeley County Militia. David May-
bank, father of John F., was born at Mount Pleas-
ant, South Carolina, December 10, 1841. He was
educated in Charleston and in King's Motmtain
Military Academy, and early in the War between
the States enlisted in the Rutledge Mounted Rifles.
Going to Virginia, he joined the Boykin Rangers,
and afterward was temporarily placed with the Jeff
Davis Division under Col. W. T. Martin. As
a member of that Legion he took part in Stuart's
raid around McClellan's army in front of Rich-
mond. Upon the organization of the Second South
Carolina Cavalry under Col. M. C. Butler he
became a private in Company A. He was in active
service all through the war, and at the time of
Lee's surrender was in a hospital at Augusta. After
recovering he engaged in planting in Beaufort
County, South Carolina. He married in Hampton
County March 18, 1866, Mary Pope Frampton. Her
father was John Frampton, one of the signers
of the Ordinance of Secession in i860. The Framp-
tons were an English family and John Frampton
married a Miss Hay of Scotch origin. In 1878
David Maybanlc returned to Charleston, and was
bookkeeper for Thomas P. Smith & Company, and
remained with the corporation of Thomas P. Smith
Mclvor Company until about 1916, when he retired.
David Maybank and wife had three sons and three
daughters: Dr. Joseph Maybank, John F., Mrs. J.
H. Wym^n, Mrs. Ed. M. Royall, Theodore^, who
died January 14, 19 19, and Mary, at home with
her parents.
John F. Maybank was reared and educated in
Charleston, and for many years has been in the
cotton business. After leaving school he spent sev-
eral years in Georgia. He returned here in 190a
and founded the business of Maybank & Company,
cotton merchants, also The Maybank Fertilizer
Company, and has conducted these with increasing
success to the present time.
Mr. Maybank married Eleanor S. Johnson, of
Charleston. Their six children are Mary, Davids
Eleanor, Ann, Theodore and John F., Jr. Mr. May-
bank is a member of clubs and social organizations
at Charleston, is a Mason and a member of Grace
Episcopal Church.
Judge R. Burton Hicks. With the largest popu-
lation of any county in the state, also one of rhe
wealthiest as the center of the great textile in-
dustry, Spartanburg County naturally contributes
an immense volume of business and many delicate
and important problems of adjustment for the Pro-
bate Court. No office in the county touches more
vitally the well being and financial interests of a
larger number of people than that of the Chancery
administration.
The county is fortunate in its present probate
judge, R. Burton Hicks. He is a native of the
county, is known to most of its cituens as a capa-
ble lawyer, has had service in the Legislature, and
is giving a most careful and painstaking admin-
istration of his present office.
He was bom at New Prospect, Campobello Town-
ship of Spartanburg Cotmty, in 188I3, a son of R. L.
and Sarah (Burton) Hicks, but moved to Spartan-
burg with his parents in 1895. He is a graduate
of Wofford College with the Qass of 1909, and
also took post-graduate studies in Columbia Uni-
versity of New York. Before entering the law
he was a successful teacher, being at one time
superintendent of the schools at Woodruff and later
in the same position at Honea Path. He used all
his spare time while teaching to give to the study
of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1913. He
began practice in the same year, with home at
Woodruff, and he was elected and served as a mem-
ber* of the Spartanburg County delegation to the
Legislature in the session of 1916.
In the campaign of 1918 he received the demo-
cratic nomination for judge of the Probate Court,
was elected in November, and began his official
term January i, 1919. He was also for some time
editor of the Woodruff News, and is a director
of the Bank of Commerce, Spartanburg.
Judge Hicks is a member of the Masonic order,
of the Elks, of the Knights of Pythias and the
Woodmen of Jhe World, and is one of the leading
lay members of the Baptist Church in Spartanburg.
He married Miss Myrtle Lanford, of Woodruff.
They have two children, Burton, Jr., and Myrtle.
Hon. Arthur R. Young has earned a high place
in the South Carolina bar and his own merits and
achievements have conferred additional credit upon
a family name that is one of the oldest and most
honorable in the South.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
73
Mr. Young, who is now representing the County
of Charleston in the State Senate, was born in
Sewanee, Tennessee, July 3, 1876, a son of Henry
£. Young, a grandson of Rev. Thomas John Young,
and a great-grandson of William Price Young, who
was of English ancestry and came to South Caro-
lina from Pennsylvania. Grandfather Rev. Thomas
John Young was at the time of his death assistant
rector of St Michael's Episcopal Church at Char-
leston. Henry E. Young, who was bom in Charles-
ton, was when he retired from practice in 1916 the
oldest member of the Charleston bar, in continuous
service for sixty years. He had begun practice in
1856, and his legal career was only interrupted by
his duties to the Confederate Government at the
time of the war. He served as a judge advocate
on General Lee's staff. He died April 9, 1918.
Senator Young's mother was Elizabeth Under-
wood Rutledge, who died February 16, 19 18, only
a few days before her husband. She was bom at
Bowling Green, Kentucky, daughter of Arthur
Middleton Rutledge, a native of Tennessee, and
granddaughter of Henry Rutledge, who went west
from South Carolina. The father of Henry Rut-
ledge was a signer of the Declaration of Independ-
ence, and a brother of John Rutledge, the first
Governor of South Carolina after the British rule.
Henry E. Young and wife had a family of six
children, three of whom reached mature years.
Arthur R. was the second child and oldest son, and
has one brother still living, Joseph Rutledge Young,
a Oiarleston cotton merchant.
Senator Young was educated in private schools in
Giarleston and graduated A. B. in 1896 from the
University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee. He
read law in his father's office, was admitted to the
bar in December, 1898, and was associated with the
elder Young in practice until 191 5. Since then he
has beei^ a member of the firm Hagood, Rivers &
Young, handling a general law clientage.
Mr. Yotmg served as assistant United States at-
torney frdm 191 1 to 1914. He was a member of the
General Assembly in 1917-18, and in the latter year
was elected to the State Senate. He is a member
of the Carolina Yacht Club and of Charleston
Lodge No. 242 of the Benevolent and Protective
Order of Elks.
December 19, 1907, he married Nannie C. Con-
ner, a daughter of General James Conner of Char-
leston. They have three sons, named Arthur Middle-
ton, James Conner and Joseph Rutledge.
Frank Ravenel Frost. In the thirty years since
he wad admitted to the "bar Frank Ravenel Frost
has always commanded a large clientage and has
done a valuable practice as a lawyer.^ He is one
of Charleston's most public spirited citizens, and
has found time to attend to the interests of many
organizations outside of his immediate profession.
i^r. Frost was bom at Society Hill, South Caro-
lina, October 17, 1863, a son of Elias Horry and
Frances Ravenel Frost. While the Frosts are an
English family the Ravenels were French Huguenots.
His father was a native of Charleston, was educated
in Yale College, and became a prominent merchant
and banker. He lived to be seventy years of age.
He was at one time president of the Chamber of
Commerce. While a business man, he was also
distinguished by his love and knowledge of books
and literature. His wife, Frances Ravenel Frost,
was born at Charleston and lived to be seventy-
three years of age. Frank Ravenel Frost is the
second of five children, and the only son still living.
His two sisters are Mrs. Ella R. Porcher and Mrs.
Harriet H. Parker, both of Charleston.
Mr. Frost attended private school at Charleston,
spent one year at Sewanee, Tennessee, and in 1886
received his A. B. degree from Harvard University.
He then returned to Charleston and read law in
the office of Smythe Lee and was admitted to the
bar in 1888. After that he practiced as a member
of the firm Sjnyth, Lee & Frost until 1911, since
which date he has been alone in his profession.
During the Spanish-American war in 1898 he
served as captain in the Third Regiment of the
United States Volunteer Infantry under Colonel
P. H. Ray, and saw some service in Cuba. He is
a trustee of the Porter Military Academy at Char-
leston, and gives much of his time to that institu-
tion. He is also a chancellor of the Episcopal
Church for the diocese of South Carolina. He
has served as a member of the Charleston - School
Board and in 1914 was chairman of the Democratic
City Convention and in 1919 chairman of the City
Democratic Executive Committee. At different
times he has given his services to various political,
charitable and other boards, is a member of the
Charleston Gub, Country Qub, the Carolina Yacht
Club, and other social or^^anizations.
In 1900 he married Miss Celestine H. Preston,
daughter of John and Celestine E. Preston. They
have two sons, E. Horry and John Preston.
George Walton Williams, former president of
the Carolina Savings Bank of Charleston, was born
at Charleston in i860 and attended the well known
schools of Dr. Bmns and Professor Sachtleben in
his native city. He prepared for Harvard College
at Adams Academy in Quincy, Massachusetts, and
spent a year and a half abroad in travel .and study.
During that time he was a student in the University
of Bonn on the Rhine.
Returning from abroad to Charleston he engaged
actively in business. For a time he was connected
with the management of the Charleston Iron Works,
and left that firm to become a partner in the cotton
and fertilizer firm of Robertson, Taylor and Wil-
liams.* After a few years he retired from mercan-
tile pursuits to become identified with the Carolina
Savings Bank, and was successively its cashier, vice
president and president.
After an active business life of thirty-seven years
Mr. Williams resigned the presidency of this bank
and has since devoted his time and energies to work
among the orphans of South Carolina and else-
where. This has been a really significant service
and the facts speak eloquently. He is chairman
of the Board of Commissioners of the Charleston
Orphan House, an institution founded in 1790 and
with a continuous record of beneficence covering
120 years.
Mr. Williams is also chairman of the Board of
Trustees of the Epworth Orphanage at Columbia
and has had much to do in shaping the life of that
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
home for dependent children. In the cause of the
orphans he has devoted his best thought and service
for a number of years, and has visited the best in-
stitutions of the kind both in Europe and America.
He is directly interested in the welfare of many
thousands of children at this time.
For many years Mr. Williams has served as
trustee of the William Enston Home, an institu-
tion "to make old age comfortable," and was for
twelve years an alderman of the City of Charles-
ton. He is a member of the Charleston Club, the
Carolina Yacht Club and the Charleston Country
Qub.
Mr. Williams married Margaret Adger, of Char-
leston, .and their children are: Margaret, wife of
Andrew M. Law, of Spartanburg; George W., Jr.,
Nashville, Tennessee; Ellison A., of Charleston.
South Carolina; Susan S., of Charleston; and
Martha, wife of Henry J. Blackford, of Engle-
wood, N. J.
Hon. Andrew Jackson Bbthea, who recently re-
tired from the omce of lieutenant governor, is not
only one of the attractive personalities in South
Carolina public life, but a man of undoubted ability
and true leadership with a proven record in pro-
fessional and business affairs.
He was born August 17, 1870, at Free State, now
in Dillon County, but formerly in the upper por-
tion of Marion County. His early years were spent
on a farm and in the invigorating environment of
the country. His father, Dr. Andrew J. Bethea,
a native of Marion County and a graduate of the
South Carolina Medical College of Charleston, was
both a physician and planter. During the war be-
tween the states he experienced hard and distin-
guished service as a Confederate soldier and after-
wards was equally useful and influential as a citizen
and phjTsician. He died in the prime of manhood
at the age of forty-three in 1801. His wife was
Annie M. Allen, who was bom in Marlboro thb
state October 22, 1843, and died June 19, 1919.
Her father. Rev. Joel Allen was a Well known Bap-
tbt minister. A woman of great refinement and
culture, she demonstrated her force of character
when as a widow with five children, three sons and
two daughters, she reared and educated them and
proved a model mother and is remembered for her
exceptional gifts and attainments.
Andrew Jackson Bethea attended Centerville
Academy and Dalcho School in Dillon County and
took his college work in Wake Forest College, North
Carolina, where he graduated B. A. in 1902 and
Master of Arts in 1904. During 1905 he was a
student of the University of Tennessee, and he
received the Master of Arts degree from the Uni-
versity of South Carolina in 1910.
Mr. Bethea, who has been a resident of Columbia
since 1907, has made for himself a name in several
sections of the state. For one term he was prin-
cipal of the Downer Institute of Beech Island, in
Aiken County, for one term was principal of the
Hopkins Graded School in Richland County, and
for a like time was principal of the Camden graded
school. For a brief time he also edited and published
the Darlington Press, now The News and Press
at Darlington.
Mr. Bethea was appointed private secretary to
Governor Martin F. Ansel and served as such from
1907 to 191 1. He was admitted to the bar by the
Supreme Court of South Carolina in December,
1910, and is also licensed to practice in the Federal
Courts. During his legal career he has success-
fully handled many important cases, and enjoys
an unusually select practice. Mr. Bethea was elected
code commissioner of South Carolina on the first
ballot by the Joint Assembly, and served from 191 1
to 191 5, during which time he codified the laws of
the State of South Carolina which is known as the
Code of 191 2.
His service as lieutenant governor was from 19 15
to 1919. He was twice . elected, each time over
strong competitors. During his second campaign he
received the largest vote ever given ' a candidate
with opposition for a state office in South Caro-
lina. In 1918 Mr. Bethea was a candidate for gov-
ernor, makii^ the question of loyalty paramount
in hfis campaign. He received a splendid vote and
is regarded as a strong and aggressive politkal
leader in his state.
Mr. Bethea is a democrat not only in a partisan
sense, but in the literal interpretation of the word,
and has always made his influence count in the
battle for the rights and rule of the people. In
many ways he has been active in movements for
the advancement of his partv. He attended the
democratic convention at Baltimore when Wood-
row Wilson was first nominated, and latter cam-
paigned for him in doubtful states and also made
many speeches to aid in the re-election of President
Wilson in 1916.
Mr. Bethea has taken an active part in military
?»ffair« havini? been a member of' the South Caro-
lina State Reserve Militia since its organization.
In 1917 he volunteered for service in the European
war and later at his own request was inducted as a
private into the. United States Army. In 1918 he
entered the Officer! Training Camp at Camp Hum-
phreys, Virginia, and was transferred to Camp
Kendrick. New Jersey, and completed training in
the Training Battalion and U. S. Gas School, tak-
ing the full course in gas defensive and offensive
warfare. He received a certificate of graduation
and was recommended for a commission as. major,
and later was commissioned with that rank in the
army and now holds that rank in the reserves.
In the midst of a busy life, however, Mr. Bethea
has found time to serve on several business boards
and is interested in a number of financial enter-
prises. He has made a decided success in business,
although he be^n life without means, educatin^r
himself and relying upon his own resources to be-
come established. In this respect he is typical of
what is best in modern commercial life and is
renrcsentative of the highest type of American
citizen.
Mr. Bethea is a prominent member of the Baptist
denomination and has served in many impoi^ant
positions in his church. He is president of thnc
board of trustees of the South Carolina Baptist
Hospital; is a member of the Board of Deacons of
the historic First Baptist Church of Columbia,
in which the Secession Convention was -.held, has
served as the chairman of the board, and for
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
75
several years was superintendent of a flourishing
Sunday school in this church. Mr. Bethea is also
a member of the Board of Trustees of the Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky,
and acted as chairman of the committee that or-
g^anized and established the Young Women's Chris-
tion Association, of Columbia.
Mr. Bethea is a Mason, an Elk, a Knight of
Pythias, and a Woodman of the World, and is
affiliated with many other organizations, institutions
and movements to advance the material, industrial,
social, political and moral life of the state and
nation.
Robert Wilson, D. D. Trained for the profes-
sion of medicine and serving as assistant surgeon
in the Confederate army during the war between
the states, Dr. Robert Wilson after the war pre-
pared for the ministry of the Episcopal Church and
for half a century has been one of the dignified
leaders and scholars in that church, not only in
South Carolina but in other states.
Reverend Doctor Wilson was bom at Charleston
October 28, 1838, son of James M. and Ann Isabel
(Gibbes) Wilson. He represents several well
known colonial families and is of Scotch, English
and French ancestiy. His father at one time was a
leading merchant in Charleston. He is descended
from a Dr. Robert Wilson who came from Scot-
land in 17^0 and became one of Charleston's most
noted physicjans of colonial times. In the maternal
line he is also descended from Governor Robert
Gibbes, who came from England in 1670 via Bar-
bados and became one of the Proprietary Governors
of the Province of Carolina.
Robert Wilson received his early education in
private schools, attended the College of Charleston,
and afterward the Medical College of the State of
South Carolina, where he graduated in 1859. For
two years he practiced medicine at Pineville, later
at Camden, and at the beginning of the war enlisted
his services in behalf of the Confederate Govern-
ment and was appointed assistant surgeon in the
army. He performed ajl the varied duties re-
quired of him until 1864. On leaving the army he
entered the Theological Seminary at Camden, grad-
uated, and in 1883 Washington College at Chester-
town, Maryland, conferred upon him the degree
D. D. He was rector of Claremont Parish at
Statesburg, South Carolina, afterward at St.
Paul's, Kent, Maryland, and for thirteen years was
in charge of St. Peter's Parish at Easton, Mary-
land. He then Teturned to his native city and be-
came rector of St. Luke's Parish, which he served
for seventeen years, and then had four parishes as
missionary until August, 191 7. He has also been
vice president of the Church Home, president of
the Charleston Library Society, president of the
Huguenot Society of South Carolina, and of the
Elliott Society, has acted as commander of Camp
Sumter of the United Confederate Veterans, and
twice as colonel of the Charleston Regiment, U. C.
Veterans, as chaplain of St. Andrew s Society, is
affiliated with the Phi Kappa Psi College Fraternity,
the Huguenot Society of America and of London,
England. In 1870 he published "Confirmation Lec-
tures" and in 1883 "The Sower," and is author of
many briefer articles and papers found in the pe-
riodical press, both religious and secular.
November 22, 1859, Doctor Wilson married Mary
Susan Gibbes. On April 22, 1862, he married Ann
Jane Shand. And now, 1920, they have been mar-
ried almost fifty-nine years. Of the eight children
born to them but two are living. Dr. Robert Wil-
son, Jr., of Charleston, and Mary, widow of Elias
Ball, also of Charleston. Doctor Wilson, Sr., has
nine grandchildren. The eldest granddaughter.
Miss Mary W. Ball, an artist, is in the service of
the United States Government Engineer Depart-
ment in the map-making drafting department.
. Edward W. Durant, Jr. A northern lumberman,
coming to Charleston about fifteen years ago to
look after the mills and other interests of his asso-
ciates in this state, Mr. Durant has found here op-
portunities for his ambition as a developer and has
become absorbed in a growing list of enterprises that
not only aroused his complete enthusiasm but are
of direct benefit to the changing agricultural and
industrial program of South Carolina.
Mr. Durant was born xt Stillwater, Minnesota,
in 1864, and was graduated from Yale University
with the class of 1887. He is therefore a product
of the rugged pioneer circumstances of the great
Northwest, and also of one of the finest institu-
tions of learning in America. He returned to
Minnesota from university to enter the Itunber in-
dustry. He worked in Itmiber camps, and acquired
a technical knowledge of every branch of the busi-
ness. Eventually he became an individual timber
owner and lumber manufacturer and was associated
with a group of men prominent in that business
in the hforthwest. Like many other such organiza-
tions, with the decrease of the timber supply in the
North they began acquiring holdings in the South.
It was for the purpose of taking charge of these
interests and mills in South Carolma that Mr. Dur-
ant located at Charleston in 1904.
It was not long before he was awake to the won-
derful natural wealth and the inducements to cap-
ital in developing agricultural and other enterprises,
and he decided to make Charleston his permanent
home. There is no native son more enthusiastic
concerning the great future of Charleston and its
surrounding rich territory than Mr. Durant His
capital and personal energy have been responsible
for a number of enterprises, but two of them, per-
haps of greatest significance, Sire his stock farms,
one being the T Farm at Rantowles, fourteen miles
south of Charleston in Charleston County, and the
other the Pine Grove Farm in Berkeley County,
adjoming the Town of Mount Holly. The T Farm
comprises over 5,000 acres of very rich land orig-
inally a rice plantation, but for several years before
it was acquired by Mr. Durant the land had been
neglected and impoverished. Mr. Durant spent
$50,000 or more developing this land into a modern
stock farm. It is a large and profitable enterprise
in itself, and has also been frequently pointed out
as a practical demonstration of the results that fol-
low judicious combination of livestock husbandry
with diversified crop growing. It is the home of
a very fine herd of pure bred Hereford cattle headed
by registered bulls, and of registered Duroc^Jersey
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
hogs. Mr. Durant has made similar and about
equally extensive improvements on the Pine Grove
Farm, which is also the breeding ground for Duroc-
Jcrsey and other high grade registered livestock.
Part of this farm comprises the Pine Grove Club.
By his practical efforts on these farms Mr. Durant
anticipated by several years the now general propa-
gsmda for diversifying South Carolina agriculture
with the raising of livestock as a means of com-
bating the threatened menace of the boll-weevil.
Mr. Durant is president of the Pine Grove Live-
stock Company, president of the Pine Grove Club,
president of the Southern Stock and Farming Com-
pany owning the T Farm, is vice president of the
E. P. Burton Lumber Company, secretary-treas-
urer of the Cooper River Corporation, and president
of the Filbin Corporation.
He has always enjoyed some of the honors of
public life. He is a republican and during the
four years of the administration of William H.
Taft served as collector of customs for the Port
of Charleston. He is a member of the Charleston
Chamber of Commerce, the Country Club and a
number of other social and business organizations.
Mr. - Durant married soon after coming to
Charleston a daughter of William Porcher Miles,
of one of the old and distinguished families of
Charleston.
Julian Mitchell is a prominent Charleston law-
yer, and counting his services three generations of
the family have been identified with the Charles-
ton community as able professional men and con-
scientious and public spirited citizens.
Mr. Mitchell was born at the summer home of
his parents at Flat Rock, November 21, 1867. His
grandfather. Dr. Edward Mitchell, of English an-
cestry, was for many years a prominent physician
and was a native of Edisto Island. Julian Mitchell,
Sr., was also born on Edisto Island, and for many
years was a prominent leader in educational affairs
in his home city and state. He was chairman of
the school board of Charleston a number of years
and was chairman of the educational committee in
the State Constitutional Convention of 1895. One
of the school buildings of Charleston is named in
his honor. His wife was Caroline Pinckney, daugh-
ter of Rev. Charles Cotes worth Pinckney, for sev-
eral years rector of Grace Episcopal Church of
Charleston and of the Revolutionary family of
Pinckneys.
Julian Mitchell, Jr., was the only child of his
parents. He was educated in the Charleston High
School, spent one year in Charleston College, one
year in the University School at Petersburg, Vir-
ginia, for three years attended Harvard University
and finished his law course in the University of
Virginia. He was admitted to the bar in 1890, and
smce that date has enjoyed a large general prac-
tice &s attorney and counsellor. He is senior part-
ner of Mitchell & Smith. He is also a director of
the Bank of Charleston, the Charleston Savings
Institiite and the Exchange Banking & Trust Com-
pany, and for many years has been interested in
politics. He was a member of the Legislature from
1896 to 1900.
In 1895 he married Belle W. Witte, a daughter
of C. O. Witte. They have two sons, Julian and
Cotesworth Pinckney.
Robert Albertus Dobson, a young lawyer of
genuine distinction and a prominent member of
the Gaffney bar, has twice been a member of the
Legislature from Cherokee County, first elected in
1910 and again in 1916. The outstanding feature
of his second term was his influence in procuring
the bond issue of $225,000 for good roads for
Cherokee County. It was this bond issue that put
Cherokee County ahead of most of the other
counties in South Carolina in matters of good
roads, and as attorney for the Cherokee Highway-
Commission Mr. Dobson has handled most of the
legal work in connection with this great
improvement.
He was born near Yorkville, South Carolina,
September 3, 1877, a son of William and Elizabeth
(McCarter) Dobson. The Dobsons are an old time
family in York County, while the McCarters are
kin of the prominent Wallace family in the old
Bethel section. Mr. Dobson's great-grandfather was
John Dobson of York County, conspicuous in his
time as a teacher and surveyor.
Mr. Dobson grew up on his father's farm, at-
tended the public schools at Yorkville, and in 1900
graduated A. B. from Furman University at Green-
ville. Like many successful professional men he
did his turn at school teaching, and was principal
of the schools at York, Kershaw and Laurens. He
also studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1904,
and in 1908 after resigning his position in the
Laurens School he located at Gaffney. There he
became associated with Solicitor J. C. Otts under
th^ name Otts & Dobson. In 1913 Mr. Dobson
formed his partnership with T. K. Vassy, under
the name Dobson & Vassy. They have a large gen-
eral practice, and also served as attorneys for the
City of Gaffney and County of Cherokee. Mr. Dobson
is secretary-treasurer of the Farmers & Mechanics
Building and Loan Association, and during the war
was a member of the local conscription board.
During his service in the Legislature . he was a
member of th^ judiciary and other important com-
mittees. He has served as moderator of the Broad
River Baptist Association, and fraternally is affili-
ated with the Knights of Pythias, Masons, Junior
Order United American Mechanics and the Im-
proved Order of Red Men.
Mr. Dobson married Miss Alice E. Williams of
Lancaster, daughter of Judge D. A. Williams. They
are the parents of four children named Rajrmond,
Nannie Williams, Robert A., Jr., and Sarah
Elizabeth.
James Barre Guess. As to a proper policy of
agricultural management in America many strong
and convincing claims have been put forth in favor
of extensive rather than intensive cultivation and
management. The working of extensive tracts of
land under one administrative unit has been a pre-
vailing practice in the old as well as the new South,
and possesses all the advantages of efficiency and
economy and satisfies the co-oi\erative principle
without the obvious faults and weakness of co-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
77
operation as geQerally applied to industrial under-
takings.
Perhaps one of the most successful of these
large sode plantations in South Carolina is that
owned by the Guess family of Denmark. James
Barre Guess, who for over thirty years has sus-
tained the. active responsibilities of this business,
was bom in Leesville, South Carolina, November
7, 1859.
His father, pr, S. D. M. Guess, was a man of
real distinction and achievement. A country den-
tist as well as a planter, he spent four years in the
Confederate army and returned home to find his
property destroyed by the invaders and his wife
and only child almost starving. With that courage
which enabled many southern gentlemen to begin
life anew, and with the assistance of his house-
hold and some hired help, he reorganized his affairs,
and his associates and friends claimed that few men
accomplished more, in a shorter time by economy,
good judgment and hard work. He had a noble-
woman for his wife, Sarah Eloise Barre. In war
times in the absence of her husband she managed
the business, paid the war taxes, and supervised
both the household and the fields. She saw the
Union soldiers burn her property and carry off the
food she needed for daily subsistence. She con-
tinued with the same loyal co-operation and shared
in the success enjoyed by the family after the war,
and liyed to the age of eighty-two.
James Barre Guess graduated from the Carolina
Military Institute, now The Citadel, June 13, 1879,
with the rank of Cadet Captain of Company A.
There was no thought of a professional career
and he immediately returned home and became a
helpful factor in the management of the plantation.
Here he found his educational training in engineer-
ing mechanics and agricultural science of great ad-
vantage to him. In 1885 he was made a full part-
ner in his father's business, under the firm name of
S. D. M. Guess & Son. A few years later he be-
came general manager, the business at that time
compri$jng extensive plantations, a store or com-
missary supplying all the needs of the farm and its
workers in a commercial way and a great deal of
other expensive equipment required for the operation
of a large southern cotton plantation and the pro-
duction of the food supplies to sustain the home
and plantation workers. In 1889 the firm organized
the first bank in the Town of Denmark, Doctor
Guess assuming its presidency, at which time the
full responsibilities of the plantation devolved upon
the son. For thirty years that business has con-
tinued to grow and prosper and even today is one
of the larger agricultural units in the state.
Until the demands of his private business absorbed
all his time Mr. Guess was able to take part in
various public duties. In 1880, the year after he
graduated from the military college, he was made
a captain in the South Carolina State Militia, and
held a commission until the. fall of 1886, when he
resigned. In that year he was elected a member
of the House of Representatives, and served with
a creditable record from 1886 imtil 1890. He then
withdrew altogether from politics in order to give
his undivided time to his business. Mr. Guess was
a directqr in the Bai^k of Denmark until .its recent
reorganization, when he retired from the manage-
ment.
The conditions that have prescribed "a solid
South" inevitably have brought southern gentlemen
into the ranks of the democratic party. Mr. Guess
is a democrat without rancor or bitter partisanship.
He is a Mason and Knight of Pythias, a|id his
chief interest for many years outside of business
and home has been the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, which he has served as trustee, steward
and for thirty years as superintendent of its Sun-
day school.
Mr. Guess has had an ideal and happy family
relationship. He was three times married. Octo-
ber 27, 1880, at Denmark, he married Hattie Ramell
Wroton, a daughter of W. H. Wroton. August
12, 1884, at Batesburg, Sallie Sophia Mitchell, daugh-
ter of J. A. Mitchell, became his wife. She was
the mother of all his children. He married for his
present wife at Ridge Spring, South Carolina,
September 30, 1914, Sudie Catherine Mitchell,
daughter of McKendree Mitchell. Mr. Guess has
six children: James Barre, Jr., who married Mary
Wiggins Connor; Hattie Lee, wife of Hubert W.
Matthews ; W. Samuel, who married Annie Lou Col-
lins; Sarsih Ellen, wife of George Milton Crum;
Emmie Ruth, who married Renold Connor Wiggins;
and Mary Frances.
Mrs. Gwrgiana Austin Sauls. The life history
of the estimable and popular lady whose name heads
these paragraphs happily illustrates what may be
attained by faithful and continued effort along a
definite line. Her career has been dignified and
womanly, her manner unaffected and her actions
have been a blessing to all who have come within
range of her influence. She is a representative of
one of the sterling old families of this section and
enjoys to a notable degree the confidence and re-
gard of the people with whom she has associated
for so many years.
Mrs. Georgiana Austin Sauls was born in Lex-
ington, South Carolina, in 1840, and is the daugh-
ter of Davis and Mary (Williamson) Austin, both
of whom also were natives of Lexington. Davis
Austin was the son of Davis and Inabniette Austin
and Mary Williamson was a daughter of Thomas
Williamson. Davis Austin, Jr., was for many years
a prominent merchant in Atlanta, Georgia, but in
1864, during Sherman's historic march to the sea,
he lost everything and fled to Savannah. Subse-
quently he located at Orangeburg, where he fol-
lowed farming pursuits during the remainder of his
active life, his death occurring in 1897, at the age
of eighty-six years. His wife had died at the early
age of diirty-one years. They were the parents of
the following children: Lavinia married a Mr.
Livingston, of Orangeburg, and is now eighty-one
years old; Morgan was a member of the Thirty-
fourth Regiment during the war between the states
and was killed in battle; Charles Wesley married
a Miss Johnston, of Colleton; Davis Kirkland was
married to Jane Croutch, of Edgefield; Jane Kath-
leen was married to a Mr. Ziegler, of Bamberg.
Mrs. Georgiana Sauls received her educational
training in private schools of her home town. In
1859 she became the wife of Caleb Sauls, who was
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
born on a plantation near Walterboro, the son of
Isaac and Olive (Savage) Sauls. He received his
education in the public schools of Walterboro and
then devoted himself to the operation of his plan-
tation. He was also a mail and express carrier,
in which positions he rendered efficient and faith-
ful service. During the war between the states
Mr. Sauls was a soldier in the Confederate army
and was stationed at Sullivan's Island. His death
occurred in 1887.
After her husband's death Mrs. Sauls was al-
most continuously in the hotel business until re-
cently, when she retired, her experience in this
line of effort covering a period of practically forty
years. She has been a resident of Walterboro for
more than fifty years aftd during these years she
faithfully served the public in a manner which
was duly appreciated, as her continued patronage
b^ the same persons year after year testified.
Though now seventy-nine years old, she still re-
tains to a remarkable degree her ph3rsical powers,
while mentally she is as keen and alert as ever.
In addition to the hotel building which she occu-
pies, Mrs. Sauls is also the owner of a fine busi-
ness block in Walterboro.
By her union with Caleb Sauls, Mrs. Sauls be-
came the mother of children who are briefly men-
tioned as follows: Julia became the wife of James
DeLetreville, of Charleston ; Davis is mentioned else-
where in this work; Hattie became the wife of a
Mr. Peoples, of Mog^etts; Morgan is deceased;
Minnie became the wife of J. J. Jones, of Au-
gusta; Sallie became the wife of J. Hagood, of
Columbia ; Charlie, Edward and Norman are de-
ceased. The last named was married to Ida Acker-
mann, of Cottageville. and they are the parents
of seven children; Edgar Pierce; Norma Evelyn;
Henry Caleb; Ruth and Naomi, twins, who are de-
ceased; Davis Austin and Elizabeth Ida.
Mrs. Sauls has through the years that have come
and gone since she first engaged in the hotel busi-
ness seen many changes take place and she re-
tains a splendid recollection of the happeings which
if put in shape for reading would make ap absorb-
ing story. She possesses a charming personality
and her circle of friends is as large as her circle
of acquaintances.
Edward Barnabas Williams is one of the best
known business men of the southern part of South
Carolina, and particularly in Dorchester County,
where for many years he has stood for progress and
fair dealing, and while he has consistently labored
for the advancement of his own interests he has
never been neglectful of his duties as a citizen
of one of the choicest sections of this great state.
Therefore he is held in the highest esteem by all
classes in the locality honored by his citizenship,
enjo3ring the confidence and good will of all as
a result of his public spirit, fair and straightfor-
ward business methods and his exemplary charac-
ter.
Edward Barnabas Williams was bom in Orange-
burg, South Carolina, on July 6, 1864, and is the
third in order of birth of the ten children bom
to James Allen and Jane E. (Dukes) Williams.
James A. Williams, who also was a native of
Orangebuiv, was a coadipainter by vocation. He
was a soldier in the Confederate army and served
throughout the struggle. His father, who was a
native of the same place, was of English descent.
The subject's mother was a native of Orange-
burg County, this state, and the daughter of Wil-
liam A Dukes, who was a descendant of one of
three brothers who came from England and settled
in South Carolina. She had one brother, J. W. H.
Dukes, who served as a Confederate soldier.
Edward B. Williams was educated in the public
schools of his native town, and as soon as old and
large enough he began to take up life's battle on
his own account His first work was as an appren-
tice at the business of carriage manufacturing, but
on the conclusion of his apprenticeship period he
engaged in the mercantile business at Orangeburg,
whidi occupied his attention for eight years, at ^e
end of which time he sold out, thou^ remaining
at Orangeburg. He then returned to his trade of
wagonmaker, at which he worked about two years.
Then for about one ytar he was engaged in the
cotton business there, but in 1903 he came to St.
George, with which locality he has since remained
identified. His first enterprise at St. George was
as a dealer in wagons and buggies, in which he
met with satisfactory success so that the follow-
ing year he added the cotton business and also
acquired some farming: interests. He has also
bought and sold many horses and mules, in whidi
he has been successful, and in 1918 he opened a
brick manufacturing plant at the ed^ of town*,
where he is making an excellent qualitv of brick,
which find a ready market The plant has a daily
capacity of TOfioo brick. Because ot his indefatigable
industry, sound business judgment and accommo-
dating ways, he has met with a well deserved suc-
cess and is today numbered among the most popu-
lar members of the business cirdes of his com-
munity. In 1908 Mr. Williams was elected mayor
of St George, and so satisfactory has been his dis-
charge of his official duties that he has been re-
tained in the office continuously to the present time,
his present term expiring in May, 1920.
In 1904 Mr. Williams was married to Minnie
Hutto, the daughter of J. S. Hutto of St George.
To this union have been bom four children, namely :
Mariam, Jane Ellafair, Sue and Edward B., Jr.
Fraternally Mr. Williams is an active member of
the Knights of P}rthias. Distinctively a man of
affairs, he has long filled a conspicuous place in local
affairs, and as leader in important enterprises he
has attained to an enviable place in the esteem of
all who know him.
Edward Rufus Cash has played a role of no
secondary importance in the upbuilding of Ga£Fney
as a cotton milling center. While to some degree
financially, he has been chiefly identified with local
cotton mills as a master of mechanical technique.
Probably when a boy he showed a genius for me-
chanics, and he developed that genius by hard and
close application through many years and is regarded
as one of the ablest cotton mul superintendents in
the state.
Mr. Cash was bora in Spartanburg Coun^ in
1863, a son of Henry and Lucy (Dcvine) Cash.
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79
He was not born to wealth, and the circumstances
of bis early home life handicapped his taking ad-
vantage of even the normal opportunities of the
local schools, which were by no means of the high-
* est class. It is said that when he was twelve years
of age he was doing all the milking, cooking and
hoeing of a **one-horse farm." His mother was
thenrn ill health, and the son and father had to
remain on the farm and do all the work both in
the fields and in the house. A year or so later
he drove an ox wagon, hauling the wood to bum
the brick that built the first mill at Clifton, South
Carolina. When the job was completed he re-
mained an employe and learned the machinist's
trade. At the end of three years he was made
master mechanic, and was elevated to a position
superior to that of the man who taught him his
trade. In itoi, leaving the Clifton mills, he joined
the D. A. Tompkins Company at Charlotte, the
pioneer mill machinery of the two Carolinas. He
was with this firm until 1893, and then identified
hunself with GaflFney, which at that time con-
tained only two or three stores, two bar rooms
and a restaurant He was therefore a participant
in the first movement for the making of Gaffney
an industrial center, and during the past quarter
of a century his interests and energies have never
flagged in behalf of everything that concerns the
welfare of this town. He came to Gaffney as mas-
ter mechanic and superintendent of the Gaffney
Manufacturing Company, which in i8g[3 built the
first cotton mill of the town. He remained in that
position until i^, and then took an active part
in the organization and building of the Limestone
Cotton Mills, having personal supervision of the
buildmg, and when it was completed remaining
as superintendent. Out of the Limestone grew the
Hamrick mill. Dr. W. C. Hamrick being an active
official in both organizations, while the venerable
merchant. J. A. Carroll, was president of the Lime-
stone milL Mr. Cash has been superintendent of
these mills since they were started. In July, 1919,
he organized the Cash Mills of which he is presi-
dent and treasurer and also the East Side Manu-
facturing Company at Shelby, North Carolina, of
which he is also president and treasurer. He has
had a number of other business and investment
interests, and for many years has been prominent
in the Cherokee Avenue Baptist Church of Gaffney.
He is chairman of its Board of Deacons. This
church, now housed in a handsome building, grew
out of what was first known as the Cherokee Ave-
nue Sunday School, organized in Mr. Cash's home.
In 1885 Mr. Cash married Miss Meda L. Byrd,
daughter of David M. Byrd of Darlington. They
became the parents of ten children, and the seven
living are: Mrs. Marie Estelle Byers, George F.,
F. Grady, Crowley B., Mrs. Inez Fulmer, Joe Dean
Price and Meda Catherme Cash. During the war
two of the sons joined the local coast artillery
company.
John FkANas Prettyman is a veteran lumber
manufacturer and merchant. While he has been
active head of a large business at Summerville some
years, he formerly operated at Marion in this state.
also in North Carolina, and acquired his early
business experience in the North.
He was bom at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May
13* 1857. His father bore the same name and was
also a native of Philadelphia. The grandfather, Da-
vid Pret^rman, was a native of Lewis, Delaware.
Practically all the Prettymans now living in the
United States are descended from two brothers,
John and William Prettyman, who came from Lon-
don, England, in 1682 and settled in Virginia. The
mother of John F. Prettyman of Summerville was
Elizabeth McClure, a native of Philadelphia and
of Irish ancestry. He was one of a family of four
children, being the oldest.
Mr. Prettyman as a boy in Philadelphia attended
the public schools. He engaged in the lumber busi-
ness in 1877, and has been a manufacturer and pro-
ducer for over forty years. About 1893 he moved his
headquarters to Newbern, North Carolina, and after
about seven years there came to Marion, South Caro-
lina, and since 1909 has had his home at Summer-
ville. At this time he formed the firm of J. F.
Prettyman and Sons and built the present milling
plant, about one mile west of Summerville, under
the firm name of J. F. Prettyman & Sons. This
lumber plant is of strictly modem construction, and
turns out a high grade of material. The timber
is supplied by about twenty miles of standard gauge
railroad, all of which is owned and operated by
the firm, as a, means of bringing in their logs and
timber, of which they have a sufficient supply to
operate the manufacttnring plant indefinitely. Mr.
F. P. Prettyman, secretary-treasurer of the com-
pany, manages the manufacture, sale and shipment
of the mills' product, while Mr. C. F. Prettyman
manages the land, timber and railroad and logging
operations of the company. At the present writ-
ing Mr. T. M. Prettyman is not actively connected
with the mill operation, he being in Texas engaged
in geological survey work in connection with the
University of Texas.
January 8, 1885, Mr. Prettyman married Miss
Virginia Fleming, a daughter of Dr. T. M. and
Virginia (Pembcrton) Fleming. Mrs. Prettsrman
was reared and educated near Richmond, Virginia.
They have four children: Frank P., Cannon F.,
Thomas M.. arid Virginia Selden. Frank married
Isabel Cross, of Marion and has two children, Vir-
^ ginia Fleming and Howard Cross. Cannon married
Louise Selden, of Richmond, Virginia. Virginia
is the wife of Dr. R. B. Rhett, of Charleston.
Thomas M. is unmarried. Mr. and Mrs. Pretty-
man and their children are members of the Epis-
copal Church.
Lawrence Allen Walker is a, banker of long
and active experience for a man of his years, and
is president of the Bank of Summerville. He was
born and received his early banking training in
Charleston. His birth occurred Febmary 17, 1879.
He is a brother of Mr. Legare Walker of Sum-
merville. He was reared and educated in Charles-
ton and Summerville, attending the Misses Brown-
field's school at Summerville, The Citadel, the
Charleston High School and Porter Military
Academy. As a young man he went to work in the
Miners and Merchants Bank of Charleston and re-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
mained with that institution for thirteen years, most
of the time as teller. On removing from Charles-
ton to Summerville he engaged in the real estate
and insurance business, and in September, 1916,
when the Bank of Summerville was organized and
incorporated he was made its president. Mr.
Walker is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias
Lodge at Summerville. He was the Red Cross
county treasurer and chairman of both War Fund
drives for Dorchester County during the World
war. He is president of the Summerville Busi-
ness Men's League, president of the Summerville
Tobacco Warehouse Corporation and has given up
time to promote agriculture and business of com-
munity. He served two • complete terms as alder-
man of the Town of Summerville, and resigned in
his third term to serve on the board of public
works of the Town of Summerville.
In 191 5 he married Margaret W. Buswell, of
Hackensack, New Jersey, daughter of Fred C. Bus-
well, who was vice president of the Home Insurance
Company of New York. They have three chil-
dren, Lawrence A. Jr., Margaret Buswell and Elea-
nor Buswell.
Thomas Middleton R.wsor is one of the oldest
lawyers of Orangeburg, and by his work in his
profession, in civil and educational affairs, is a man
of recognized prominence all over the state.
He was born at Orangeburg, a son of Capt. Peter
A. and Anna M. Raysor. His father was a planter
and served throughout the war as a captain in the
Confederate army. Thomas M. Raysor was edu-
cated in the public schools, took his A. B. degree
from Wofford College in 1878 and read law under
Hon. Samuel Dibble. He was admitted to the' bar
in December, 1880, and has since commanded a
large general practice, much of his work having
been in connection with litigation for railroad, tele-
graph companies and other large corporations. He
is also a noted criminal lawyer. He was one of
the organizers and the first vice president of the
Bank of Orangeburg, and is now its president.
Mr. Raysor served as a member of the Legisla-
ture from Orangeburg from 1884 to 1890 and 'was
a member of the State Senate from 1901 to 1910.
He is a trustee of Converse College, was trustee
of the University of South Carolina, chairman
of the board of trustees of the graded schools of
Orangeburg and was one of the organizers of the
public school system. He and his family have been
factors in the educational uplift of South Carolina
for several generations. He has served as a mem-
ber of the State Board of Education, and while
in the Legislature he supported the bill to rebuild
The Citadel, the» state military college at Charles-
ton. His father was a graduate of The Citadel and
his grandfather was much interested in that school
in his early days. Mr. Raysor was one of the
pioneers in promoting a compulsory system of
education for the state. In recognition of his many
varied services to education Wofford College bestowed
upon him the degree LL. D. During the war Mr.
Raysor was chairman of the local board of exemp-
tion and supported the Government in all its poli-
cies and phms". He is a member of the Episcopal
Church and in politics has been a delegate to a
ntunber of state and national conventions Of the
democratic party. Mr. Raysor married Mattie Man-
deville Rogers, of Darlington, South Carolina.
Wyue C. Hamrick. Though a graduate of the
Baltimore College of Physicians and Surgeons, and
having earned a deservedly high place in his pro-
fession, Mr. Hamrick has made his career count
for most through the promotion and management
of cotton industries and has built up at least four
great factories that furnish a large proportion of
the industrial assets of Cherokee County.
Mr. Hamrick was born in Cleveland County,
North Carolina, in i860, and though a resident of
Gaffney since 189S, his home and work are not
far distant from die scenes of his birth and early
childhood. His parents were Cameron Street and'
Almera (Bridges) Hamrick. The Hamricks are
an old family of Cleveland County, a county notable
for its many distinguished characters. The Ham-
ricks have lived there since before the Revolution.
Mr. Hamrick's grandparents were Moses and Sarah
(Robinson) Hamrick. His great-grandfather Rob-
inson was a Revolutionary soldier and through him
Mr. Hamrick has membership in the Sons of the
American Revolution.
He grew up and received his literary training
in Cleveland County, and in 1882 took his degree
from the Baltimore (College of Physicians and Sur-
geons. He practiced his profession at Grover and
Shelby, North Carolina, and for one term of two
(1888-90) years represented Cleveland County in
the North Carolina Legislature. Upon locating at
Gaffney in 1895, Mr. Hamrick continued his pro-
fessional work for several years. In 1900, asso-
ciated with J. A. Carroll, A. N. Wood and others
he organized the Limestone Mill at Gaffney, and
for a number of years has been its secretary and
treasurer. This mill was started with 10,000 spindles
and. 300 looms and in 1904 its facilities were in-
creased by 15,000 spindles and 240 looms, without
increasing the capita] stock. The business has paid
many large dividends, even in. adverse years, and
the industry is now one valued at $1,000,000, and
furnishing employment to 250 or more operatives.
The success of this institution encouraged Mr.
Hamrick to further efforts in mill buildmg. In
1907 he organized the Hamrick Mill at (jaffney and
since then its capital stock has been increased from
% $150,000 to $250,000, and its facilities from 10,000
spindles and 300 looms to over 25,000 spindles and
over 500 looms. The mill employs approximately
225 people. Mr. Hamrick is president and treasurer
of the company. These two industries at Gaffney
produce about 4,000,000 pounds of print cloth an-
nually. The third milling enterprise established by
Mr. Hamrick was Broad River Mill at Blacksburg.
organized January i, IQ13. The company purchased
the old Whittaker Mill, a yarn mill, and in 1916
enlarged it until it has about 14,000 spindles and
324 looms. On February 26, 1920, he organized the
Musgrove Mills, a million dollar corporation of
Gaffney, South Carolina.
The community is indeed fortunate when its in-
dustrial affairs are entrusted to a man of such
character and ideals as Mr. Hamrick. His abflities
measure up fo those of the keenest and most .suc-
cessful practical business men, and yet through all
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
81
the hand of the administrator is guided by set-
tled convictions and purposes that keep the technical
machinery of business always subservient to the
welfare of the humanity involved. The Limestone,
Hamrick and Broad River mills are the workshops
for communities of prospering and enlightened peo-
ple and nowhere do churches, schools and every
factor of a modem social community receive more
encouragement.
In civic and public life Mr. Hamrick's most im-
portant work at the present time is as chairman
of the Cherokee County Highway Commission, an
office he accepted in 1917, when the commission was
entrusted with the expenditure of the proceeds of
a bond issue of $4.so,ooo. Under his wise and able
administration these and other large sums of money
have been expended for good roads, and Chero-
kee County stands among the first in the state in
the matter of improved highways. Mr. Hamrick
was elected as a member of the State Senate in
19 ID. He was prominent in the movement for the
formation of the new county of Cherokee in 1897.
Mr. Hamrick married Miss Turner of Grover,
North Carolina. They have five children: Volina;
Waite C, who is now actively associated with his
father in cotton manufacture; Ethel, Alma and
Lyman A.
WnxjAM Whetstone Wannamaker, a lawyer
by profession, is head of one of the oldest and
most prosperous cotton milling industries in the
state at Orangeburg.
He was born at Allendale, South Carolina, Au-
gust 17, 1872, a son of Rev. Thomas Elliott and
Sarah Ann (Boyd) Wannamaker. His father was
a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, dis-
tinguished by long and devoted service. The son
was educated in public and private schools, gradu-
ated in 1893 from the academic department of the
University of South Carolina, and in 1894 com-
pleted the law course in the same institution. He
was in active practice at Orangeburg until Janu-
ary, 1905. In 1898 he had volunteered for service
in the Spanish-American war, becoming captain
of Company E of the Second South Carolina In-
fantry. He saw some active service in Cuba and
was on duty until mustered out in April, 1899.
Mr. Wannamaker is sole owner of the Orange
Cotton Mills, which is the successor of the Orange
Mills established by George H. Cornelson, one of
the southern pioneers in cotton manufacture. Since
1909 W. W. Wannamaker has been sole owner.
Mr. Wannamaker served two years as an alder-
man^ of Orangeburg City. For two years, 1918-19,
he was grand master of Masons in South Caro-
lina. He has served as trustee of the city schools
for six years and is a director of the People's Bank
of Orangeburg. He is a member of the Methodist
Church.
June I, 1899, he married Harriet Lyall Matheson,
of Bennettsville, South Carolina. They have four
children : William W., Jr., who graduated f roni The
Citadel at Charleston in 1919; Alexander James
Matheson, a high school student; Lyall Matheson;
and Thomas Elliott, Jr.
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Thomas White Cothran. On the basis of his
experience and proved achievements Thomas White
Cothran of Greenwood is one of the leading civil
and construction engineers of his native state. He
comes of a prominent family of old Abbeville and
Greenwood counties, and was born in a portion of
Abbeville that is now Greenwood County in 1874.
His parents were Wade E. and Sarah Elizabeth
(Chiles) Cothran. Both the Cothrans and the
Chiles families have been long and prominently
identified with South Carolina. The Chiles family
came to this state from Virginia, and is numerously
represented in all the South Atlantic States. Mr.
Cothran's great-grandfather was Samuel Cothran,
a son of Alexander Cothran, who came to South
Carolina about 181 5. Originally the Cothrans were
north of Ireland people, and on coming to America
first settled in Connecticut, and arrived in South
Carolina about 1793. Samuel Cothran, the great-
grandfather, married Mary Richardson.
John Cothran (1799- 1860), grandfather of Thomas
White, was the second son of his parents. He
was a prominent planter and business man in ante-
bellum days, owning large tracts of land and many
slaves. His homestead was at Millway in Abbeville
County, now a part of Greenwood County. Wade
Elephare Cothran (1837-1899), was the third son of
John Cothran and Elephare Rushton. The other
sons of the union died without issue.
In the Millway community W^de E. Cothran
spent most of his life. He was a graduate of The
Citadel at Charleston in the class of 1858. He was
a student of medicine in the South Carolina Medi-
cal College at Charleston when the Civil war be-
gan. He left his medical studies and became a
lieutenant in Company C of the Seventh South
Carolina Infantry. After a brief service he was
promoted to captain of his company and later as-
signed to the Engineer Corps. Shortly after re-
joming his command he was severely wounded at
Harper's Ferry and was unable to resume duty
either as a soldier or in private business until 1867.
Returning to Millway he spent his life as a planter.
On the formation of Greenwood County he was
elected its probate judge, and was in that office
until his death in 1899.
Thomas White Cothran was born and reared on
the old plantation at Millway, and was a member
of the first class that graduated from Qemson
College in 1896. In that splendid institution he
received the fundamentals of his training as an
engineer. He was retained at Qemson the first
year after gradaution as instructor in drawing. For
two years he was connected with the United States
Geological Survey, being on duty in Texas, Indian
Territory and Iowa. In 1900 he became an assistant
engineer and later chief draftsman in the chief engi-
ner's office of the Seaboard Air Line Railway, and
was in that position for several years, though for
a brief time he was with a coal mining corpora-
tion. Subsequently he was made principal assistant
engineer to George A. Kent, chief engineer of the
South and Western Railway (C. C. & O.), and in
1905 became resident engineer of the A. B. & A.
Railway at Warm Springs, Georgia. July i, 1906,
Mr. Cothran assumed new duties as principal as-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
sistant engineer on construction of the Norfolk &
Southern Railway, between Raleigh and Newbern
in North Carolina.
Since September, 1908, Mr. Cothran has been prac-
ticing his profession on his own account and with
permanent home at Greenwood. He does a gen-
eral engineering business and has built up an or-
ganization adequate for handling large construction
contracts. This organization has put up a number
of prominent buildings in Greenwood and adjoining
towns and cities, among them being the Clemson
College Young Men's Christian Association building.
Mr. Cothran married Miss Maud Boswell, of
Portsmouth, Virginia. Their six children are
Thomas W., Jr., Virginia, Mary Nelson, William
Benjamm, Sarah Elizabeth and Perrin Chiles. Mr.
Cothran is a member of the American Society
of Civil Engineers, is a member of the American
Water Works Association, a Scottish Rite Mason,
also a Knight Templar and Shriner, a member of
the Rotary Club and served several years as mem-
ber of the South Carolina Highway Commission.
Thomas B. Bryant. Another member of the
Bryant family whose interests and activities for so
many years have been identified with the old Orange-
burgr district, Thomas B. Bryant is one of the
largest land owners and planters of the state, and
for the past thirty years has made his home and
busmess headquarters at Orangeburg.
Mr. Bryant, who is a brother of Uston G. Bryant,
under which name many of the interesting particu-
lars in the family's history will be found, was
bom in Colleton, now Dorchester County, Septem-
ber 5, 1861. He was educated in the common schools
of his native county, and at the age of seventeen
began a business career. For over thirty years he
and his brother Uston were closely associated in
their varied business affairs. Their first undertak-
ing was in the lumber business, and in 1^3 they
moved to Fort Mott, where they conducted a plan-
totion. for seven years. In 1889 they removed their
business headquarters to Orangeburg, and as
Bryant Brothers operated as a livestock firm, buy-
ing, selling, raising and breeding stock. In 191 1
the brothers separated their interests, and since then
Thomas B. Bryant has continued in the stock busi-
ness under the name of T. B. Bryant.
As a planter Mr. Bryant is one of the largest
producers of corn and cotton in South Carolina.
One of his plantations has an historic interest apart
from its productiveness. It lies in the eastern part
of Orangeburg County, in what was at one time
known as the Upper St. John's Parish. The old
battlefield of Utah Springs, the scene of one of the
decisive battles of the Revolution, especially so far
as the Carolinas were concerned, is on the planta-
tion. Mr. Bryant has 1,850 acres of land in that
tract, and uses between 900 and 1,000 acres for his
com and cotton crops. Another farm of 417 acres is
in that portion of Calhoun County formerly Orange-
burg County, and practically all of this is used for
crop growing. Another highly improved farm con-
tains 150 acres and is close to Orangeburg.
Mr. Bryant for five years was interested in the
Peoples National Bank as a director and stock-
holder, and then retired. He owns the brick build-
ing in Orangeburg on Main Street, where he kas his
business headquarters, and has one of the attractive
homes and other property interests in the city.
Mr. Bryant is an active member of the Baptist
Church and is affiliated with ihe Masonic fraternity.
He has been twice married. In February, 1893,
Miss Lelia Wertz, of Newberry, became his wift,
but she died on the 20th of October of the same
year. In June, 1895, he married Tulu Rajr, a na-
tive of Orangeburg, and a daughter of Thomas
Ray, who came from Ireland. Her mothen Ange-
line Jackson, was descended from a South Carolina
family of Revolutionary stock and of English de-
scent. Mr. and Mrs. Bryant have a family of one-
son and eight daughters: Pauline, wife of D. P.
Courtney, a business associate of Mr. Bryant, has
one child Bryant Courtney; Ruby, wife of H. C.
Richards, of Orangeburg; Marie and Maud, stu-
dents in Coker College; Doris and T. B., Jr., both
in high school, Helen and Angie Ray in the grade
schools; and Mamie, the youngest.
James Alexander Carroll. The history ef sev-
eral important towns in South Carolina is largely a
repetition' of one name woven through all t^c ex-
panding life and enterprise of the community. This
is notably tme of Gaffney, today one of the hobs of
industry and commerce in upper South Carolina.
The name most frequently repeated here during a
half century of growth and development is that of
James Alexander Carroll, who has been well de-
scribed as a composite personality of merchant,
manufacturer, banker, broker, jobber, fanner,
builder and booster, and through it all has ran an
eminent public spirit which might well niake him
deserving of the appellation philanthropist
He was bom May 19, 1852, in York County.
His parents were Thomas and Lucinda (Hullcndcr)
Carroll. His father was a Confederate soldier and
lost his life in the siege of Petersburg. The pa-
ternal ancestry is one branch of the distinguished
Carroll family of Maryland and Virginia. The
famous Charles Carroll, of the "Carrolls of Car-
roUton" signer of the Declaration of Independence,
has probably had no more worthy descendant than
the Gaffney business man.
James A. Carroll spent his youth in a period of
lamentable ruin and destruction in the South, and
he came to manhood with his character strengthened
by the shock of circumstance and many vicissi-
tudes. He had a farm training, attended local
schools only until he was sixteen, and spent much
of his youth with a noted citixen of Whittaker's
Mountain, the late Ira Hardin. On leaving home
h,e worked for a while on the building of the
first railroad, the old Richmond & Danville, now
the Southern, and during his later teens clerked in
a number of country stores for Mr. Hardin.
In 1869 at the age of seventeen he first came to
Gaffney, then known -fitly as Gaffne/s Old Field,
and clerked in the town^s first store owned by I.
Hardin. He had little capital, but had showed
himself worthy of trust, and not long afterwards
he established a little store of his own at Gowdeys-
ville near Gaffney. He conducted that four years,
and in 1877 returned to Gaffney, and now for over
forty years has been the city's most prominent
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
83
business factor. Until 1881 he conducted a busi-
ness under his individual proprietorship, and then
took into partnership the employe whom he held
in highest regard, W. C. Carpenter. The firm of
Carroll & Carpenter continued for nearly a quar-
ter of a century. In 1900 George C. Byers bought
an interest, and the organization was Carroll, Car-
penter & Byers until February, 1904, when Mr.
Carpenter withdrew. Since then the business has
been Carroll & Byers, established in a completely
fitted and modern building of its own known as
the Carroll & Moore Block. The firm of Carroll
& Byers is now a complete merchandise organiza-
tion, carrying over $100,000 of stock, the main store
being devoted to general dry goods and men's and
women's clothing, with also a wholesale and job-
bing department. The firm has at another location
a grocery store, established since 1905. The firm
are extensive dealers in fertilizers and through the
Carroll Cotton Company buy most of the cotton
produced in that territory. The members of the
firm are also interested in farming and real estate.
Mr. Carroll established the cotton buying firm
of Carroll & Stacy in 1881, and for many years
it was the largest plant of its kind in the state
emplojring about 100 men and in some sea-
sons buying over $1,000,000 worth of cotton. Mr.
Carroll was one of the original stock holders of
the Cherokee Falls Cotton Mill, and served as its
president twelve years, from 1888 to loop. He made
the first subscription, $10,000, to the Gaff ney Manu-
facturing Company in 1892 for the purpose of build-
ing the first cotton mill in Gaffney. He has been
president of the Limestone Mill since its organiza-
tion, and has been a director from the start in the
Gaffney Manufacturing Company, the Hamrick,
Globe, Cherokee Falls and Broad River mills, and
is ^ director of the Victor Cotton Oil Company.
For twenty ye?irs he conducted the great lime works
in Gaffney, producing about 100,000 barrels of lime
annually.
Mr. Carroll appeared in the role of a banker
when in 1891 becoming associated with F. G. Stacy
he established Carroll & Stacy, Bankers. In 1896
this bank took out a national charter becoming
the National Bank of Gaffney, and later became
the First National Bank. ;
These varied activities of themselves obviously
constitute a great public service in the community.
Mr. Carroll has been generous of his time and
means in helping out many worthy causes. He
has been particularly interested in supplying educa-
tional facilities for young men and women, partly
from a consciousness of a lack of these facilities
during his own youth. Several years ago h^ made a
donation of $15,000 to Limestone College, and in
.April, I9i9» there was announced an additional gift
from him of $25,000 to this institution-
Mr. Carroll married in 1871 Miss Mary Hum-
phries. Their two daughters are Mrs. G. Q. Byers
and Mrs. Doctor A. C. Cree.
Thomas Boone Fraser, who has been an asso-
ciate justice of the Supreme Court of South Caro-
lina since 1912, has his home at Sumter, where he
was born June 21, i860, and is a son, of Judge
Thomas Boone and Sarah Margaret XMcIver)
Fraser. As a boy he intended to become a lawyer,
doubtless through the influence of his father, who
for many years was a leader in the South Carolina
bar and at one time judge of the Third Circuit Court.
The son graduated A. B. from Davidson College
in North Carolina in 1881, and read law under his
father, being admitted to the bar in 1883. He
steadily practiced law. at Sumter for thirty years.
From 1901 to 1912 he served as a member of the
South Carolina House of Representatives, and was
chairman of the judiciary committee five years. In
1912 he was elected to the Supreme Court, and for
a time filled an unexpired term as chief justice.
He was re-elected in 1916.
Judge Fraser is a member of the Presbyterian
Church. December 16, 1886, he married Emma M.
Edmunds, of Sumter.
James Lawrence Quinby is one of many suc-
cessful men who regard it as a privilege to refer
gratefully to the community of Graniteville as their
birthplace and early home. With Mr. Quinby this
pride and interest are increased because Granite-
ville has been his permanent home and the scene of
his busy career,, for over half a century.
He was born at Graniteville in 185 1, son of Law-
rence and Martha (Powell) Quinby. His father,
a native of Charleston, moved from that city to
Graniteville in 1845. He was an associate of the
distinguished Charleston citizen William Gregg in
the building of the Graniteville cotton mill. This
was the first cotton mill in the state, and has re-
mained in continuous operation for over seventy
years.
The mill and its surrounding community stand
out as a high light in southern industry. As soon
as the mill and village were completed and the
force of help assembled Mr. Gregg established a
free school, and while without power to do so by
strict law he practically provided for a system of
compulsory eduption for all children between the
a^es of seven aqd twelve. Thus in that little mill
village more than seventy years ago was begun,
in practice, the required attendance of children at
school for stated periods of the year, a principle
which was not given full effect over the state in
general until 1919. From the first no one under
twelve years has ever been allowed to work in the
mill at Graniteville, and as a result of that liberal
and enlightened provision the mill company has
paid larger divide^ids on its capital than many others
that made no effort along educational lines. Further-
more, wholesome sanitary conditions, comfortable
housing, beautiful surroundings, features which have
been widely advertised by other mill communities
in the South, though only of recent establishment,
have been the prevailing rule at Graniteville for
three quarters of a century.
In November, 1907, the Hickman Memorial Half
was dedicated .^t Graniteville. As a prominent
member of the, community who knew most of its
history James Lawrence Quinby was called upon
for an address at the exercises. He spoke con-
servatively and yet brought out facts which may
be a source of lasting, pride to Graniteville for all
time to come.. He spoke of the unequalled condi-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
lions socially, industrially, morally and religiously
that have always existed at Graniteville, and as a
result of these advantages the large number of
strong and successful men and women who in their
youth either worked in the mill or were members
of mill families. He reviewed the past represen-
tation of Edgefield and Aiken counties in the Legis-
lature and fotind men who had at one time been
mill workers at Graniteville, and also referred to
by name many county officials not only in Aiken,
but in Georgia, Alabama and other states, named
physicians, lawyers, judges, soldiers, statesmen and
ministers, bank presidents, cotton mill executives,
merchants and educators, all of whom were indebted
in some way or other to the influences of the
Graniteville community. Besides those who began
as mill workers and sought othei" fields of labor,
better fitted for their talents, there were many who
continued work in the mill and acquired comfortable
and substantial homes and farms. In the words of
Mr. Quinby, "but the iriost of the girls have become
wives and mothers, which after all is the most per-
fect and glorious achievement."
It is indeed a pardonable pride and satisfaction
on the part of Mr. Quinby that he has so long been
associated intimately with the community and its
people. He received his early schooling at the
Graniteville Academy. At the age of thirteen and
a half he began work in the mill, and in that time
his own expectations and those of his family looked
toward a career as a cotton manufacturer. In-
stead, in 1871,' he engaged in the mercantile, busi-
ness, and has been a merchant at his present loca-
tion for nearly half a century. His store is one
of the largest and most attractive in that . section
of the state. Mr. Quinby is also president of the
Bank of Graniteville, and has much valuable farm
land and town property. He has always been a
leader in Graniteville affairs, working for good
churches, schools and the improvements that mean
most in his locality. He has been a member of the
Legislature from Aiken County and a member of
the state tax board. During the war he had charge
of Liberty Loan drives for Aiken County and was
an unstinted worker and giver in behalf of war
loans, Red Cross and other auxiliary campaigns.
Mr. Quinby is a Methodist.
His first wife was Ellen Turner, of Edgefield
County. She left him one son, James Lawrence
Quinby, Jr., now an associate in his father's busi-
ness. Mr. Quinby married for his present wife
Caroline Wyers, of Brunswick, Missouri.
Joseph J. Major. The mature years of his life
Mr. Major has spent as a successful farmer in
Anderson County, gained a competence in agri-
culture before the era of tremendous prosperity
now enjoyed by the farmer, and is personally well
known all over the county and a member of an old
and prominent family of the state.
He was born on his father's plantation in that
county October 26, 1855. The family was founded
in South Carolina by James Major and his two
brothers, Elijah and Enoch, who came to this state
from Virginia. James Major first lived in Fair-
field County, and later settled in Anderson County,
east of the City of Anderson. He was of English
descent, and the family on coming to America first
lived in Pennsylvania and later in Virginia. James
Major married at Pendleton, Margaret (Peggy)
Breazeale. They had eleven children, Lavina,
Pinckney D., Caroline, Hiram B., Hezekiah, James
A., Margaret, E. Jenkins, Sallie, Joseph W. and
Kennon. The daughter Margaret was accidentally
killed at the age of two years, but all the others
lived to be more than thirty years of age. All the
sons except the first, who was too old, were Con-
federate soldiers, and Joseph W. and Kennon sacri-
ficed their lives to the cause.
E. Jenkins Major married Elizabeth, the daugh-
ter of Ezekiel Long, a pioneer in the northern part
of Anderson County. E. Jenkins Major was a
farmer, and he and his wife reared their children
on the farm. These children were Margaret, Eze-
kiel Aiken, Joseph J., Willie, who died at the age
of three years, John A. and Allie.
Joseph J. Major was reared on a farm, acquired
a good education and training for serious respon-
sibilities, and after his marriage located on the old
homestead which he still owns. Along with farm-
ing he was associated with others in the fertilizer
and buggy business at Anderson for several years,
but his chief prosperity has been won from the
soil. He owns several tracts of farm lands, and
with his family lives at 1429 South McDufiie Street
in Anderson, where he built a few years ago a beau-
tiful and spacious home. He and his family are
all members of the Baptist Church.
January 25, 1887, he married Margaret J. Harris,
Mrs. Major is a sister of Dr. J. C. Harris of An-
derson. Of their marriage the first child, Joseph
Harris, died at the age of fourteen. The second is
Elizabeth, usually known as Bessie. The three
younger children, sons, are Ezekiel, Roy and Harold.
All were soldiers in the great war, though much
to their regret their time was spent in training camps
on this side of the ocean. Ezekiel became a lieu-
tenant, while the other two sons were privates.
Hon. Thomas Bothwell Butler. A distin-
guished lawyer and one of the ablest and most
resourceful public men of the state, Thomas Both-
well Butler has been a member of the Cherokee
•County bar since the organization of that county,
which was one of the first public movements in
which he took an active and effective part. He
has served as mayor of Gaffney and is now a mem-
ber of the State Senate.
He was born near Santuc, Union County, Janu-
ary II. 1866, son of Dr. Pierce Picken and Arsinoe
(Jeter) Butler, being a member of some of the
oldest and most prominent families in the state.
Doctor Butler was a brother of the eminent Gen.
M. C. Butler, whose career is an indelible part of
South Carolina history. Senator Butler is also a
nephew of the late Governor Thomas B. Jeter.
When he was twelve years old Thomas B. Butler
left the farm home of his parents to live with his
uncle. Governor Jeter, at Union, and acquired most
of his early training from his scholarly relative
and also from the public schools of Union. After
the death of Governor Jeter he continued to live
with his widow, and from the Jeter home he en-
tered the University of South Carolina, where he
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85
took both the literary and law course. Soon after
his admission to the bar he located at Gaffney in
1895 and during the following year was leader in
the agitation before the Legislature for the forma-
tion of Cherokee County with Qaffney as county
scat As a lawyer he has climbed to the heights of
success and has measured hb abilities with many
of the best of his contemporaries. For twenty
years he has been employed on one side or the
other in nearly every important case tried in the
courts of his county. In a business way he is a
director of the People's Building and Loan Asso-
ciation of the American State Bank and Cash Mills.
Again and again positions of honor and trust
have been conferred upon him. In 1900 he was
almost the unanimous choice of his county for a
seat in the House of Representatives, and in 1901
he defeated two strong and popular men for the
State Senate. After the close of his term he de-
voted himself assiduously to the practice of law,
and in 1908 formed a partnership with W. S. Hall.
He has been county chairman of the democratic
party several terms, for a number of years state
executive committeeman, has been mayor of Gaff-
ney, United States commissioner, national elector
at large, and in 1918 was again returned to a seat
in the Senate, where he is a member of the Judiciary
Committee. Three times he was candidate for Con-
gress, and made a most creditable race against the
veteran congressman, D. E. Finley. Some years
ago he was elected lieutenant-colonel of the Third
South Carolina Regiment, and served with similar
rank on Governor Ansel's staff. Colonel Butler is
chairman of the board of trustees of the Buford
Street Methodist Church.
He married Miss Annie Wood, daughter of A.
N. Wood. They have a son and daughter, Thomas
B., Jr., and Ann Jeter.
David Robert Coker, of Hartsville, is one of a
family long prominent in agricultural leadership,
as upbuilders of the great cotton industry in the
South, promoters of education, and distinguished
both in war and peace.
The family of Coker has been longest identified
with the community icnown as Society Hill. At
Society Hill was born James Lide Coker on Janu-
^'T 3, 1837, a son of Caleb and Hannah (Lide)
Coker. James L. Coker was educated in St. JDa-
vid's Academy at Society Hill, in the South Caro-
lina Military Academy at Charleston, and made a
special study of botany and chemistry in the Lau-
rens Scientific School of Harvard University. He
is the recipient of the honorary degree LL. D. from
the University of South Carolina.
Shortly after beginning his business career he
was called to the stern duty of war. In the fall
of i860 he organized the Hartsville Light Infan-
try, and commanded that company in several great
battles, including that of Fredericksburg. He was
severely wounded at Lookout Mountain, Tennessee,
afterward fell into the hands of the enemy, and
did not return to service. He was promoted to
major of the Sixth South Carolina Volunteer In-
fantry about the time he was wounded. He served
as a member of the South Carolina House of Repre-
sentatives in 1864-66.
From 1866 he became a factor of increasing
prominence as a merchant and manufacturer at
Hartsville. From 1874 to 1881 he was also a mem-
ber of the firm of Norwood & Coker, cotton fac-
tors, at Charleston.
In 1881 he organized and for a number of years
served as president of the Darlington National
Bank. He was the first president of the Darling-
ton Manufacturing Company in 1884, and in 1889
built a short line of railway from Floyd to Harts-
ville. He and his oldest son established the Caro-
lina Fiber Company at Hartsville, manufacturing
pulp and paper from native wood. He also served
as president of the Southern Novelty Company,
was a partner in the firm of J. L; Coker & Com-
pany, a director of the Hartsville Cotton Mill,
Hartsville Oil Mill, and was director and presi-
dent until 1910 of the Bank of Hartsville. He has
served as trustee of Coker College for Women at
Hartsville, as president of the Pee Dee Historical
Association, has been prominent in the Baptist
Church, and was affiliated actively with the South-
ern Historical Association, the South Carolina His-
torical Society, the. American Historical Associa-
tion, the American Red Cross, American Institute
of Civics and many other societies.
March 28, i860, James L. Coker married Susan ^
Stout, of Alabama, who died in 1904.
His younger son, William C. Coker, born at
Hartsville in 1872, is a Doctor of Philosophy from
Johns Hopkins University, is a distinguished botan-
ist, and since 1^67 has been Professor of Botany in
the University of North Carolina. He has done
a great deal of original work, his travels and in-
vestigations having taken him to many foreign coun-
tries, and he is widely known for his work as a
teacher and original contributor in the botanical
field.
David Robert Coker, another son of James L.
Coker, was born at Hartsville, November 20, 1870,
being the fifth of ten children, seven of whom
reached mature years. He was educated in the
public schools, in St. David's Academy at Society
Hill and for four years was a student in South
Carolina College, graduating with the degree of
A. B. in 1891. In 1892 he entered his father's
mercantile business at Hartsville, was promoted to
a partnership in 1894, and for many years has been
managing partner of a firm that does an imposing
aggregate of the mercantile business of the county.
He organized and is president of the Pedigreed
Seed Company and the Coker Cotton Company.
He is also interested in the Hartsville Oil Mill,
the Carolina Fiber Company, the Southern Nov-
elty Company, the Hartsville Fertilizer Company,
is a director of the Federal Reserve Bank at Rich-
mond, is one of the trustees of the Universitv o'
South Carolina and was chairman of the State
Council of Defense during the World war.
Aside from his business he has given much of
his time to the promotion of agricultural inter-
ests, and especially to the breeding, introduction and
marketing of better and larger varieties of cotton.
His work in these respects bas resulted in chang-
ing the territory around Hartsville from short
staple to long, and has added millions of dollars to
the profit of the farmers of the South. He was
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
one of the twenty -five men who constituted the
National Agricultural Advisory G)mmission of the
United States in 1918. He was also a member of
the Agricultural Committee of ei^ht sent to Europe
to investigate and report on agricultural conditions
in September-October, 1918. He is president of the
Plant Breeders Association of South Carolina.
In 1804 he married Jessie Richardson, of Tim-
monsvilfe. She died in May, 1914, the mother of
Catherine, Hannah^ Eleanor, Robert and Samuel.
In August, 191S, Mr. Coker married May Roper, a
daughter of D. C. Roper, Commissioner of Internal
Revenue. By this union there is one daughter,
Martha.
DeWyat Rahn Rises, a prominent South Caro-
lina educator, is present superintendent of the Abbe-
ville schools, and has been teaching and engaged in
school administration since early manhood.
He was born in Edgefield County, South Carolina,
December ao, 1875, son of James Howard and
Matilda (Etheredgc) Riser. He grew up on his
father's plantation, attended the local schools, was
also a student of Newberry College, and completed
his work at Yale University in 1905. The succes-
sive positions and responsibilities he has held in
the teaching world were in the Mount Pleasant Col-
legiate Institute in North Carolina, two years as
superintendent of the Ridgeway schools, two years
head of the Science Department of the Columbia
High School, two years superintendent at Aiken,
also as superintendent of the Manning public
schools for five years and in 1917 was promoted to
his present duties as superintendent of the Abbe-
ville school system. He has now twenty-eight
teachers on his staff and the enrollment in the
local schools is twelve hundred.
Mr. Riser is a member of the State Teachers As-
sociation and the Superintendents Association, and
is affiliated with the Knights of P3rthias. June 27,
1912, he married Mabel Pearl Johnson, of Ridgeway.
South Carolina.
Colin Jasper McCaiX, whose business record in
Marion County extends back thirtv-five years, still
has many important interests in and around Mullins.
Mr. McCaU was born in Marlboro County, South
Carolina, December 10, 1850, a son of Lauchlin and
Susan (McDonald) McCall. He grew up on his
father's farm and received a country school educa-
tion. In 1873 he came to Marion County, locating
at Temperance, where he was in the turpentine
industry and later conducted a store and a farm.
For a number of years he was a lumber manufac-
turer, also operating cotton gins and other enter-
prises. In 1893 Mr. McCall removed to Mullins and
for thirteen years was agent and chief representative
of Alexander Sprunt & Son. Since then he has
engaged in the cotton brokerage and fertilizer busi-
ness, also owns some valuable farming land and is
a director of the Bank of Mullins. He has been
elder of the Presbyterian Church and superintendent
of the Sunday school for seven years.
December 10, 1874, Mr. McCall married Annie
Virginia Page, of Marion County. Nine children
were bom to their marriage: Ida, wife of J. D.
Piatt, editor and owner of the Mullins Enterprise,
Oifford Simpson, a cotton broker in North Carolina ;
Edna, at home; Walter Vernon, a farmer at Mul-
lins; Bess, wife of Dr. F. A. Smith; McDonald
Laughlin, engaged in lumber manufacturing; Irene,
wife of Duncan McDuffy, of Marion; Elbert Dun-
can of Savannah, Qeorgia; and Jessie Dunlap, wife
of M. H. Granger, a farmer in Lee County, South
Carolina.
Olin Sawyek, M. D. While he has enjoyed as
busy -a practice as any physician in Georgetown
County, Doctor Sawyer has yielded to the pres-
sure of duty and the urging of friends to perform
many services outside the immediate limits of his
{>rofession. He has been a member of the Legis-
ature, held town offices, has been prominent in
civic patriotic and business affairs, and is one of
the best known men in his section of the state.
He was bom in Edgefield County, January i,
1875, a son of Ptolemy Searon and Frances De
Laura (Crouch) Sawyer. His father was a planter
and merchant. Doctor Sawyer attended the public
schools of Trenton and Johnston, finished his liter-
ary education in the University of South Carolina,
and in April, 1901, graduated from the Medical
College of the State of South Carolina at Charles-
ton. He largely paid his own way through medical
college. As a young man he had worked on a
farm and clerked in a drug store and also taught
school two summers. He began the practice of
medicine at Georgetown and from the first has
enjoyed substantial connections. He is chief sur-
geon of the Atlantic Coast Lumber Corporation,
and also the Georgetown & Westem Railroad Com-
panv, and when that line was taken over by the
Seaboard Air Line he remained as local surgeon.
Doctor Sawyer has served as a member of the
Board of Aldermen in Georgetown and was a mem-
ber of the Legislature from that county from 1907
to 1913. In 191 5 he was elected mayor of George-
town and served two terms. He was in all the
democratic state conventions from 1902 to 1912,
was chairman of the County Democratic Organiza-
tion from 1906 to 1912, and a presidential elector
in 1904. During the war Doctor Sawyer was chair-
man of the county Red Cross campaign, was a Four
Minute Man of the committee on public information
during the World war and as sUth spoke and actively
worked for the putting through of all the Red Cross
campaigns, also Liberty and Victory bond drives,
Young Men's Christian Association and United War
Work Community drives, and for Jewish relief. He
served four years as chairmen of the local Board of
Health. He is president of the Georgetown Medi-
cal Society and a member of the State, Southern
and American Medical associations and the Asso-
ciation of Southern Railway Surgeons. In 1903
Governor Heyward commissioned him regimental
surgeon with the rank of major, First Regiment
Volunteer Cavalry, ^nd he served in two encamp-
ments, until a change was made in the system of
the militia organization of the state. Doctor Saw-
yer for four years was a director of the Georgetown
Chamber of Commerce. He is a Presbyterian and
is affiliated with the Masonic Order, Knights of
Pythias, and the Benevolent and Protective Order
of Elks.
November 27, 1901, he married Lulie Boyd of
Ridgeway, South Carolina, daughter of Dr. John
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
87
D. and Lucy (Bryant) Boyd. They have twin
daughters, 01m and Ray.
George William Dargan was born at "Sleepy
Hollow" in Darlington County, South Carolina, on
May II, 1841. He was educated at the academies
of his native county and at the South Carolina Mili-
tary Academy at Charleston. In 1861 he married
Miss Ida Louise Hunter, also a native of Darling-
ton County. He was admitted to the bar in 1872;
was elected as a democrat to the State Legislature
without opposition in 1877 ; was elected solicitor of
the Fourth Judicial Circuit of South Carolina with-
out opposition in 1880, and served with distinction
as a member of the Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth,
Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses of the United
States, from the Sixth Congressional District of
South Carolina. He died at Darlington, South Caro-
Ima, on the 29th day of June, 1898, and was sur-
vived by his wife, Ida Louise, and five children,
namely, Lawrence, George Edwin, Emile Bacot,
Sarah DuBose and Archie Shaw Dargan.
Mr. Dargan was the son of Dr. William Edwin
Dargan and Sarah DuBose, and was the grandson
of Timothy Dargan, whose father was also named
Timothy, ^1 of whom were residents of Darlington
County, which has been the home of the Dargan
family since a time prior to the Revolutionary war.
The family has furnished some conspicuous names
to the history of the state. Among them were
George Washington Dargan, a distinguished chan-
cellor of South Carolina; Julius A. Dargan, an emi-
nent lawyer and one of the signers of the South
Carolina Ordinance of Secession; and Lieut.-Col.
Alonza T. Dargan, of the Confederate Army, who
was killed in action at Petersburg, Virginia, in
1864, all of whom were uncles of George William
Dargan.
He was a modest and retiring gentleman of unim-
peachable character, an able and successful lawyer,
a ripe scholar and a faithful and fearless public
servant
Wilbur L. Rodrigues. While his name was added
to the Charleston bar only a few years ago, Wilbur
L Rodrigues has won a large following and many
successes in his chosen profession.
He has been a resident of South Carolina most
of his life, but was born at Jacksonville, Illinois,
in 18^ son of L L. and Minnie (Vieiera) Rod-
ngues, who now reside at Orangeburg. South Caro-
lina. L L. Rodrigues, of Portuguese ancestry, was
also bom at Jacksonville, Illinois. The grand-
father, a native of Portugal, was a missionary and
on coming to America settled in Illinois. L. L. Rod-
r^es brought his family to Orangeburg County in
189&
Wilbur L Rodrigues attended his first schools
in Orangeburg and after completing his public
school work b^an the study of law there. He con-
tinued tiic reading of law in the office of Mr. B. A.
Hagood at Charleston and was admitted to the bar
in 1917. In three years his abilities have been tested
and his qualifications proven in the handling of an
increasing general practice.
Mr. Rodrigues is affiliated with Landmark Lodge
of Masons. He married Miss Ethel Goddard of
Charleston and their two children are Wilbur L., Jr..
and Mary Ethel.
Richard Lewis Berry. Forty years ago Richard
Lewis Berry had earned some considerable success
as a dniggist and dealer in timber lands. Inciden-
tal to his main business and to express a youthful
enthusiasm which he had cherished for the practical
art of printing, he established a small job printing
plant at Orangeburg in 1881. Not long afterward
some destructive fires swept away the greater part
of his timber holdings, involving his other invested
capital, and on reorganization his assets he found
little left except the printing plant. It was a dis-
couraging situation, but proved in fact a blessing
in disguise, since by givmg all his energies to print-
ing he discovered his real genius and ability and
the work to which his enthusiasm and efforts have
been wholly devoted duriiig all subsequent years.
Mr. Berry was born in Orangeburg County, Janu-
ary 23, 1850. While remotely of Irish stock, the
Berrys have been in America for many generations
and are of Revolutionary stock. Richardf E. Berry,
his father, was born in the lower part of Orange-
burg County, and owing to his age was not called
into service by the Confederacy until 1863, and
thereafter served chiefly on guard duty with the
state troops until the close of the war. He held
the rank of lieutenant. Otherwise he devoted his
years to farming. His wife was Mary Ott Berry,
also a native of Orangeburg County, and one of
her brothers was a Confederate soldier. She died
in 1850.
Richard Lewis Berry was six months old when his
mother died, and an aunt reared him until he was
twenty years of age. He had regular duties on the
farm in proportion to his years and strength, but
also attended local schools and spent one term in
Wofford Preparatory School. On leaving home at
the age of twenty Mr. Berry moved to Branch-
ville and engaged in the drug business. The license
he received at that time from the State Pharma-
ceutical Board he still preserves. He was a drug-
gist ten years, and also became interested in the
timber industry in that vicinity. Then came the
critical stage and the turning point in his career
above described.
He developed his printing plant to profitable pro-
portions and in time expanded his business by estab-
lishing the Enterprise, a weekly newspaper. He
continued it for two years, until the financial de-
pression of 1893. Later he employed his printing
plant to publish the "Cotton Planr for Dr. W. J.
Stokes. This was a weekly agricultural paper, and
Doctor Stokes had bought it to further his political
ambition, ahd was elected to Congress largely
through the influence wielded by the paper. The
Cotton Plant had a circulation of 8,000, and was
published by Mr. Berry for two years.
Later Mr. Berry organized the firm of R. Lewis
Berry & Company, the personnel of which con-
sisted of himself, his son W. D. Berry and A. C.
Dibble.. The company published the Southern Chris-
tian Advocate in 1900-01. Later, under the same
name, the father and son* in 1904 established the
Orangeburg Evening News, issued daily except Sun-
day. The publication of this splendid daily paper
was continued until 1917, and proved a great asset
to the city. However, Mr. Berry's ideas were some-
what in advance of his time, and the patronage of
the News was not all it should have been. One
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
of the contributing causes for the discontinuance
was the rapidly mounting high prices of both print-
ing paper and labor, and it was only after the pub-
lication was discontinued that the business man
and citizen generally of Orangeburg appreciated the
usefulness of the organ.
Through all these years the job printing plant has
been continued. In May, 1919, Mr. Berry organ-
ized the Orangeburg Sun Company, being associated
with James I. Sims, Henry R. Sims, Hugo S. Sims,
W. D. Berry and C C. Berry. This company bought
the Orangeburg Sun, a semi- weekly, from Mr. Fred
WannamaJcer, acquiring the publication plant at the
same time. Soon afterward the Sun became a
weekly and has so been published. The company
is incorporated for $10,000, with R. L. Berry as
president, C CliflFord Berry, secretary and treasurer.
The Sun enjoys a large circulation among the farm-
ers of the county and exemplifies some of the best
standards of country journalism in the state.
Mr. Berry has always been a Methodist, and is
affiliated with the Masonic order. At B ranch ville,
December 24, 1876, he married Miss Frances M.
Howell, a native of that town and daughter of
William H. and Mary A. Howell. The two sons
of Mr. and Mrs. Berry have already been noted
hi the business record of the father. Their names
are Walter Douglas and Charles Clifford Berry.
The former now has charge of the printing depart-
ment of the Epworth Orphanage at Columbia. In
191 1 he married Miss Otes Ransdale, a native of
Orangeburg and a daughter of Lendo Ransdale.
They have one child, W. D., Jr. Charles C. Berry
married June 29, 1909, Annie Mackay, a native of
Orangeburg and a daughter of W. E. Mackay.
Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. C. C.
Berry, C. C. Jr., Frances and Richard Bruce.
CoRDiE Page is a well known lawyer of Horry
County, was born in that section of South Caro-
lina, and most of his life has been spent there,
though for a time he was engaged in law prac-
tice at Florence.
He was born at Galivants Ferry, Horry County,
August 19, 1884, ^ son of William and Mary Jane
(Lewis) Page. He grew up on his father's farm,
attended Zion School, graduated from the schools
of Conway in 1905, and took his Bachelor of Science
degree from the University of South Carolina in
1909. For one year he taught school in his native
county and in 1912 received his LL. B. degree from
the law department of the state university. In
January, 1913, he formed a partnership with C. J.
Casque at Florence, but from 19 15 to September,
19 1 7, was in practice alone in that city. At the
latter date he returned to Horry County and en-,
joys a splendid practice at Conway, He is secre-
tary of the G. T. Walker Company, a clothing firm
of Florence, and was one of the original charter
members and organizers of the Pee Dee Fair Asso-
ciation. From April, 1918, until the close of the
war he was a member of the local draft board
at Conway. Mr. Page is also a leader in the affairs
of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
John Martin Kinard. A very busy and useful
career, based upon self attainment and wisely di-
rected ambition, has been that of John Martin Kin-
ard, the well known banker and industrial leader
at Newberry.
He was born at Kinards, Newberry County, May
17, 1862. He acquired his early literary education
in Newberry College and afterward took a special
course in South Carolina College and while there
won the debaters medal given by the Christopher
Society. He- became interested in public affairs
and for ten years serVed as clerk of court of New-
berry County. Mr. Kinard was made president of
the Commercial Bank of Newberry at the time of
its organization in 1896, and has wisely directed
the affairs of that institution for over twenty years.
He is also a director of the Newberry Cotton Mill,
and is president of the Newberry Knitting Mill.
He married Miss Margaret Lee Land, of Augusta,
Georgia, June s, 1895.
Robert Milton Shirley. A large part of the
business rendered at Honea Path has been supplied
by members of the Shirley family. One of the most
prominent of them was the late Robert Milton
Shirley, for a quarter of a century a banker and
from early boyhood an abundant source of business
enterprise to that community.
Mr. Shirley died January 29, 1918, in the house *
where he was born March 14, 1858. His parents
were John Jasper and Frances (Mattison) Shirley.
John J. Shirley was bom on Little River, five miles
south of Honea Path, July 18, 1825, and during his
infancy his parents removed to Honea Path, where
he grew up and was long one of the most con-
spicuous figures in the town. He built the home
where his son Robert M. was born and where the
latter's widow still lives. John J. Shirley died
March 9, 1907, when m his eighty-third year. Though
well advanced in years at the time, he served as a
loyal soldier of the Confederacy in Company E of
the Twenty-First Regiment, under Colonel Keiths
and as first lieutenant had command of the company
part of the time. On account of ill health he was
sent home In 1863. He served as the first station
agent and performed the duties of that office for
twenty-eight years at Honea Path. He was also
the first postmaster, was a merchant, and built the
Shirley Hotel, which was operated under his man-
agement for over fifty years. In 1855 John J.
Shirley married Miss Frances Mattison. They had
three sons, William A., a furniture dealer and under-
taker at Honea Path; Robert Milton; and Dr. John
Fletcher Shirley, of Honea Path. John J. Shirley
also had farming interests. He was a deacon in the
Baptist Church.
Robert Milton Shirley grew up in his home town,
attended the public schools, and was not more than
ten years of age when his special genius for busi-
ness prompted him to become a clerk in a local store.
Thus he had a thorough training in business at a
time when most boys are engaged in their books
and school routine. In 1883 he started in business
on a small scale as a general merchant. He gave
up his mercantile interests in 1893 to organize the
Bank of Honea Path. He became its president and
served that institution faithfully and well for nearly
a quarter of a century. Mr. Shirley had the char-
acter and the ability which made him implicitly
trusted by all v^ho knew him. In every sense he was
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
89
a leader in the community, taking an active part
in organizing the Honea Path Cotton Mills and
serving as vice president ; was for a long time inter-
ested in the Honea Path Lumber Company and part
of the time president; and owned extensive farming
interests. He was active in the establishment of
the Carnegie Library, and was a member of the
Town Council many years. He was an elder in
the Presbyterian Church and was a member of the
Knights of Pythias.
November 13, 1890, he married Miss Sallie Hill
Erwin, a daughter of Malcolm Erwin of £r win's
Mill in Abbeville County, and his wife, Margaret
(McMurtry) Erwin, who were natives of County
Antrim, Ireland. The Erwin family came to the
United States in 1865, locating at Erwin's Mill in
Abbeville County. Malcolm Erwin was a brother
of Thomas Erwin, who was the first of the family
to come to South Carolina and from Abbeville
County moved to Charleston, where he lived for
many years. Mrs. Shirley's grandfather, Arthur
Erwin, brought his family to the United States and
lived near Abbeville Court House. The Erwins are.
Scotch-Irish. Mrs. Shirley was born in Abbeville
County. She is the mother of a son and daughter,
Malcolm John Shirley and Frances Eileen Shirley,
the latter now Mrs. Clyde Mann. Both children
were liberally educated, the son graduating Bachelor
of Science from Davidson College, in North Caro-
lina in 1 91 5 and taking his law degree from the
University of South Carolina in 1917. The daugh-
ter graduated in 19 19 from Chicora College. Mal-
colm John Shirley, who was born December 29, 1893,
enlisted in the National army November 26, 1917,
and was called to active duty December 15, 1917.
For seven months he was in the Quartermaster's
Training School at Camp Johnston, Florida, and
was sent overseas June 5, 19 18. He remained in
France nearly a year, until May 18, 19 19. During the
war he was stationed at an intermediate section in
supply work: He received his honorable discharge
June 3, 1919.
John Elbert Steadman is a young lawyer of Den-
mark, a community in which he has spent practi-
cally all his life, and in which he is highly esteemed
as a citizen.
He was born there August 9, 1891. The Stead-
mans came to South Carolina during the Revolu-
tionary war. His grandfather was a native of Lex-
ington County, and he took part in the war between
the states. His father is John E. Steadman, who
was born in Lexington County and was a merchant
and died in his seventy-seventh year. He was a
second lieutenant in the war between the states,
and was wounded The mother, Sarah Merritt, was
bom in Lexington County and is still living, a resi-
dent of Denmark. Her parents were from Alabama.
John Elbert Steadman was the sixth child and
third son in a family of eight children, all living.
He has three brothers in Denmark. Boyce, and
Elmore were in the World, war, Elmore a finance
officer at El Paso, Texas, and Boyce was in the
quartermaster's department at Bordeaux. Gordon
is with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. He was
well educated, spending one year in Clemson Col-
lege and taking the law course in the University
of South Carolina, where he graduated in 191 5.
He was admitted to the bar in June of the same
year, and at once opened his office at Denmark,
specializing in commercial law. In addition to his
growing and substantial law practice he represents
some of the leading fire insurance companies, and
is also owner of a farm in Bamberg County.
In 1919 he married Miss Dessie Hungerpiller, a
daughter of J. E. Hungerpiller, of Elloree, South
Carolina. They are planters and South Carolinians.
Arnold A. Rivers. The name of Arnold A. Riv-
ers of Brunsson, needs no introduction to the people
of his community, where he spent practically his
entire life, and where he was successfully engaged
in business as the result of rightly applied prin-
ciples, which never fail in their ultimate effect when
coupled with integrity, uprightness and a congenial
disposition, as in his case, judging from the high
standing he maintained among his fellow citizens,
whose undivided esteem he justly won and retained,
for his life was one of untiring industry and hon-
orable dealings with his fellow men.
Arnold A. Rivers, who was the popular and effi-
cient cashier of the Merchants and Planters Bank
at Brunson, was born in that town on February
2j, 1886, and was the fifth in order of birth of the
SIX children born to the union of J. E. and Mil-
.dred (Smith) Rivers. J. E. Rivers was born in
Hampton County, South Carolina, and has there
spent his entire life. He is the son of J. D. Rivers,
who was born at what is now known as Rivers
Bridge, Barnwell County, South Carolina, and whose
father, a native of England, was the first of the
family to settle in South Carolina. The subject's
mother, who was born in Hampton County, South
Carolina, is the daughter of Thomas Smith, who
also was a native of that county and of English
origin.
Arnold A. Rivers attended the schools of Hamp-
ton, where he was graduated from the high school,
and he then took a complete course in a business
college in Columbia, South Carolina. He was en-
gaged in the fertilizer business for a number of
years at Brunson, in which he was successful, and
in 1918 he was chosen as cashier of the Merchants
and Planters Bank of Brunson, which position he
filled until the time of his death in February of
1920. Mr. Rivers was also the owner of a splen-
did farm, to the operation of which he gave proper
attention. He was considered a splendid type of
business man, a leader of men in his community
and a stanch supporter of every movement calcu-
lated to advance the interests of the locality in any
way, giving his hearty support to those objects which
promised to benefit the public welfare.
In 1906 Mr. Rivers married Lillie Hughes, the
daughter of L. F. Hughes, and they were the par-
ents of one son, Louis. Mr. Rivers was a mem-
ber of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and
the Knights of Pythias. In the course of an hon-
orable career he was successful in his business ef-
forts and enjoyed the confidence and good will of
those with whom he had been associated in either
a business or social way.
At the death of Mr. Rivers his brother, John C.
Rivers, was elected to succeed him as cashier of
the Merchants & Planters Bank. John C. Rivers
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
was bom March 23, 1889, near Brunson. He at-
tended the public schools and graduated from the
Hampton High School. He was engaged with his
brother James T. Rivers in the mercantile business
in Brunsoh for about four years. He then car-
ried the United States mail for three years, until
February, lazo, when he was elected cashier of the
bank. Mr. Rivers is the owner of and conducts a farm
of about 255 acres near Brunson. His crop has
been principally in cotton, but he grows com and
grain as well. He is a member of the Knights of
Pythias.
John C. Rivers married December 21, 1916, at
Brunson, to Ivy Lee Bmnson, a native of Brtmson
and daughter of William R. Bmnson. The Brun-
sons are of an old South Carolina family, the town
of Brunson being named in their honor. Mrs. Riv-
ers' grandfather was a soldier in the Confederate
army. Mr. and Mrs. Rivers have one child, Miss
Mildred Lavonia.
Herbert King Gilbert is a veteran in the serv-
ice of the Atlantic Coast Line Railway, and is now
division storekeeper at Florence.
He was born at Charleston, March 21, 1873, a so^
of Hezekiah Mix and Eveline (King) Gilbert. His
father spent his active life as a merchant and in
1858 opened the first general store at Florence.
Herbert K. Gilbert was educated in public schools
and left school to become a messenger boy in the
feneral offices of the Atlantic Coast Line Railway,
le has been promoted steadily during his quarter
of a century of service and now holds one of the
important posts in the railway service in South
Carolina.
He has alsol>een prominent in local affairs. For
two terms he was an alderman, resigning that
office, served three years as a meu'ber of the Board
of Health, and from 1907 to 1913 held the office
of mayor for three terms. In the fourth campaign
he was beaten by thirteen votes, but in 19 17 was
again elected mayor, and in that year received the
largest number of votes ever given to one can-
didate in a municipal election at Florence. Mr.
Gilbert has been a director and treasurer of the
Young Men's Christian Association at Florence since
it was organized. He is secretary of his Masonic
Lodge and a member of the Chapter and Council,
and is a steward in the Methodist Episcopal Church
South. April 19, 1898, he married Edith May De
Berry of Florence County. They have two children,
Herbert McTyeire and Clyde Lee.
Hon. Frank Boyd Gary. After his admission
to the bar in 1881 Frank Boyd Gary began prac-
tice at Abbeville, and has never changed his resi-
dence from that old and historic city. In the mean-
time, however, his abilities have won him state wide
and national prominence, and it is doubtful if there
is a better known man in the state, or a lawyer
or jurist in whom the people in general feel more
complete confidence as to his integrity, ability and
adequacy.
Judge Gary, a former United States Senator from
South Carolina, and present judge of the Eighth
Judicial Circuit, was born at Cokesbury in Abbe-
ville County, March 9, i860, son of Dr. Franklin
F. and Mary Caroline (Blackburn) Gary. In dif-
ferent generations members of this family faave
been people of high position. Judge. Gain's pater-
nal grandmother was of the Witherspoon family,
which was identified with the very earliest settle-
ment of South Carolina. They first located near
Kingstree in Williamsburg County, whence they
scattered throughout the state, after having with-
stood the hostility of Indians and the incursions of
wild animals in the frontier days, and after hav-
ing established a church, which today is one of the
oldest in South Carolina. The Witherspoons came
to this country to escape persecution, and lineage
goes directly to the reformer John Knox.
Judge Gary through his mother b a member of
the Blackburn family, which numbers among it
many scholars, and two of the Blackbums were
killed in the battle of Kings Mountain in the Revo-
lutionary war. Dr. Franklin F. Gary, father of
Judge Gary, was a prominent physician, and also
took an active part m public affairs, serving as a
member of the General Assembly, as president of
the State Medical Association, as member of the
State Board of Health and representing in every
way the highest character and attainments. Dr.
Franklin Gary and his wife were honored by three
distinguished sons, who were simultaneously Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court, Judge of the Fifth
Circuit and Judge of the Eighth Circuit. The Chief
Justice is Eugene Blackbum Gary, a sketch of
whom appears elsewhere in this publication. There
is also a daughter, Mrs. M. G. Eason, of Charles-
ton.
Frank Boyd Gary was educated in the Cokes-
bury Conference School, and then entered Unk>n
College at Schenectady, New York. On account
of ill health he withdrew from college in his senior
year and was admitted to the South Carolina bar
in 1881, and at once began practice at Abbeville
and continued a leading figure in his profession
in that part of the state until 1912. While busied
with the law he accepted many opportunities to
serve the public For about nine years he was
bill clerk of the House of Representatives, serving
under the late James Simons of Charleston, speaker,
and during that experience acquired mudi knowl-
edge of legislative proceedings and especially of
parliamentary law. In 1890 he was elected a mem-
ber of the House, and was re-elected for four con-
secutive terms, serving until 1900. In 1906 he was
again elected a member of the Legislature. He
was three times elected speaker of the House, and
in 1895 was a member of the Constitutional Con-
vention. On March 6, 1908, Judge Gary was elected
by the General Assembly of South Carolina to fill
the vacancy in the United States Senate caused
by the death of Senator A. C. Latimer. During
this service he made several speeches, one of which
— ^his speech on immigration — ^attracted wide atten-
tion and favorable comment, especially in New Eng-
land. Upon the expiration of his time in the Senate
he was elected without opposition judge of the
Eighth Judicial Circuit, and has been successively
re-elected, having served ten years and is now at
the beginning of another four year term.
One of the important incidents in his career,
which added to his reputation abroad, was his
annointment upon the recommendation of the then
Chief Justice Pope of the Supreme Court by Gov-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
91
ernor Hayward to preside at the trial of James H.
Tillxnan in Lexington County. This was a famous
trial. Tillman was charged with the murder o.f
Editor Gonzales. The trial lasted twenty-two days,
and was followed with intense interest all over
the United States, all of the metropolitan papers
giving much space to the proceedings. While the
result of the trial may have been disappointing to
many, but little if any criticism was indulged as
10 the presiding judge, and many expressed them-
selves as pleased with his fairness and impartiality
in the conduct of the case.
Judge Gary served as delegate at large from
South Carolina to the National Democratic Con-
vention in 1908. He is a director of the People's
Savings Bank of Abbeville and is active in Ma-
sonry, having been Potentate of Oasis Temple of
the Mystic Shrine in 1907, Oasis at that time be-
ing the Temple for both Carolinas. He is a mem-
ber and steward of the Methodist Episcopal Church
South.
January 6, 1897, at Florence, South Carolina,
Judge Gary married Maria Lee Evans, daughter
of Dr. James and Maria Antoinette (Powell) Evans.
Their only son is Midshipman Frank Boyd Gary,
Jr., now a second classman or junior in the United
States Naval Academy at Annapolis.
Geobix Warren. In a brief sketch of any living
citizen it is difficult to do him exact and impartisd
justice, not so much, however, for lade of space
or words to set forth the familiar and passing events
of his personal history, as for want of the perfect
and rounded conception of his whole life, which
grows, develops and ripens, like fruit, to disclose
its true and best flavor only when it is mellowed
by time. Daily contact with the man so familiarizes
us with his many virtues that we ordinarily over-
look them and commonly underestimate their pos-
sessor. There are, however, a number of elements
in the life record of George Warren, one of the
representative citizens of Hampton, South Caro-
lina, that even now serve as examples well worthy
of emulation, and his fellow townsmen are not un-
appreciative of these. He is a splendid example of
the virile, progressive man who believes in doing
well whatever is worth doing at all, a man of keen
discernment and sound judgment and enjoying to
a marked degree the confidence of his fellow men.
George Warren, solicitor for Beaufort, Jasper,
Hampton and Colleton counties, was born in Hamp-
ton County, South Carolina, on November 25, 1887.
and is the son of JeflFerson and Clara E. (Riley)
Warren. The father, who was born and reared
in Colleton County, was a prominent and success-
ful lawyer in Hampton, where his death occurred
in 1897. He vras a soldier in Company C, "Fifth
South Carolina Cavalry, Butler's Brigade, Confed-
erate States of America, during the Confederate
struggle, serving throughout the war, which he en-
tered at the age of fourteen. His father, George
Warren, who was a native of Colleton District,
was sheriff of that district and was comn\anding
officer of the South Carolina Militia, with the raiS
of brigadier general. His father, also named
George, was a native of England, who came to
America prior to the War of the Revolution. The
subject's mother, whose maiden name was Qara
E. Riley, was a native of Barnwell Cotmty, South
Carolina, and was the daughter of J. W. Riley,
of Barnwell, but who was a native of Ireland.
Prior to her marriage to Mr. Warren she had
been married to E. J. Webb, to which union three
children were bom. The subject of this sketch
is the only child born to her union with Mr. Warren.
George Warren received his elementary educa-
tion in the public schools and then entered Clem-
son College, where he was graduated in 1908, with
the de^ee of Bachelor of Science. Then, having
determmed to make the practice of law his life work,
he entered the office of his uncle, E. F. Warren, at
Hampton, under whose direction he read law for a
year, being admitted to th^ bar in 1909. Immediately
thereafter he opened an office in Hampton and has
since then been devoted to the active practice of
his profession. His abilities were quickly recog-
nized and he has been engaged in mudi of the most
important litigation in the courts of this and neigh-
boring counties. Mr. Warren was elected a mem-
ber of the House of Representatives in 1912, and
was twice re-elected, serving in that body until
1916. In the latter year he was elected judge of the
Circuit Court, but he declined this position and was
then elected solicitor by the people, in which posi-
tion he is still serving for tiie counties of Beau-
fort, Jasper, Hampton and Colleton. He has also
held other local offices.
In 191 1 occurred the marriage of George Warren
to Rita L Lightsey, who died on October 13, 1918,
leaving a son and a daughter, George and Rita
Couise. Fraternally Mr. Warren is an appreciative
member of the Masonic fraternity, in which he has
attained to the thirty-second degree of the Scottish
Rite, and also belongs to the Ancient Arabic Order
of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, the Knights of
Pythias, the Junior Order of United American Me-
chanics and the Woodmen of the World. He has
earned a reputation as a progressive, enterprising
man of affairs and a broad-minded and upright citi-
zen, which the public has not been slow to recog'-
nize and appreciate. The honorable distinction
which he has already achieved in his profession is
but an earnest of the still wider sphere of useful-
ness which lies before him, for he is a close ob-
server of the trend of the times and an intelligent
student of the great questions and issues Upon
which the thought of the best minds of the world
are centered.
Benjamin S. Williams was a gallant and hard-
fighting youthful soldier and officer in the Confed-
erate army, serving with a regiment from the State
of Georgia. Not long after the war he came to
South Carolina, and for many years has been a
lawyer, planter and public official in Hampton
County.
Mr. Williams was born in Savannah, June 25,
1843, son of Gilbert W. M. and Esther Williams.
Although born ' in Georgia, he passed practically
his entire life in South Carolina. This branch of
the Williams family is one of the oldest in America,
and its authentic records and traditions go far
back into the middle ages of Great Britain. The
tradition is that the family descended from Mar-
chudel, chief of one of the fifteen tribes of North
Wales, in the ninth century. Marchudel was also
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
the progenitor of the royal houses of Tudor. The
root meaning of the name is "Guard" or "Sentinel/*
the word being derived from the old Briton or
Cambrian word "gwylio" meaning "to watch." The
coat of arms is a sable, a lion rampant, argent
armes and languid gules. Crest is a fighting cock,
symbol of watchfulness. Motto: Y Fyno Dwy Y
Fydd "What God willeth will be." The side motto
is: Cognosce Occasionem — "Watch your Opportu-
nity." A traveler in Wales finds this coat of arms
at every turn, cut in stone monuments, engraved
upon mural tablets in churches and upon brass
plates on pew doors.
In America all the colonial as well as later wars
had their representatives in the Williams family.
Descendants have no trouble in establishing eligi-
bility to the much coveted membership in the So-
ciety of Colonial Wars. Colonel Ephraim Williams
of Massachusetts fell in the battle near Lake George.
He was the founder of a free school at Williams-
town, which has since become Williams College.
Joseph Warren, who fell at Bunker Hill, was the
fifth in descent from Robert Williams, one of the
Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. William Williams,
also a lineal descendant of Robert, was member
of Congress in 1776 and one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence.
Mr. Williams' great-grandfather was Hon. John
Williams, of South Carolina, whose mother was a
Miss Caldwell, sister of the mother of Hon. John
Caldwell Calhoun, the South's greatest statesman.
Mr. Williams' paternal grandmother was Elizabeth
Legare Martin, whose mother was Elizabeth Legare
of Charleston.
In the cemetery at Savannah, Georgia, there is a
modest monument bearing the epitaph "To the mem-
ory of Rev. Gilbert W. M. Williams, Colonel of
the Forty- Seventh Georgia Infantry, who fighting
fstllantly for the cause of the Confederacy died
eptember i, 1863, — a soldier, a patriot and a Chris-
tian." Gilbert W. M, Williams* name is in the ar-
chives of the State of Georgia as a signer of the
ordinance of session, carnring Georgia, his adopted
state, out of the Union, following his native State
of South Carolina. He then organized and com-
manded the Forty-seventh Regiment of Georgia
Volunteer Infantry in the Army of the West until
his death, which occurred in September, 1863. He
was a Baptist minister, and was widely known
for his forcefulness and eloquence in debate.
Benjamin S. Williams was only eighteen years of
age when his father took up arms in behalf of the
cause which he believed right. The son followed
him, enlisting in 1861 as a private in the Twenty-
fifth Georgia Infantry and rising through the grades
of corporal, sergeant and first lieutenant. In 1862
he was appointed adjutant of the Forty-seventh
Georgia Infantry, his father's regiment. He served
throughout the remainder of the war with that
famous regiment, known as "the Bloody 47th
' Georgia."
After the war the young soldier returned to his
devastated home and engaged in farming and plant-
ing. He also studied law, located in Hampton
County, and for many years has been one of the
leading cotton planters of that section of the state.
He had an active part in politics, particularly in
reconstruction times. From 1876 to 1880 he was
auditor of Hampton County. He also served as
sheriflF and has represented the county in the Legis-
lature. He was in the Legislature from 1880 to -
1890. Politically Mr. Williams is an ardent demo-
crat, and has always emphasized the "State's Rights'*
principles in the party. .
On November 7, 1867, in Beaufort District, South
Carolina, he married Miss Josephine Richardson,
daughter of James Cameron Richardson. Mrs.
Williams was the beautiful and pious daughter of
a wealthy planter, and in her life distinguished
herself by faithfulness as a wife, affection as a
mother, and the full performance of her duty as a
Christian. Mr. Williams has the following child-
ren: Gilbert James, Albert Richardson, Kate Cam-
eron, Josephine Caldwell, Esther Ashley and Eliza-
beth Legare. Only one son is married, Gilbert
James.
Harry Alexander Brunson, a prominent mem-
ber of the Florence bar, formerly a well known
educator, is present probate judge of Florence
County.
He was born at Florence, November 4, 1868, a
son of William Alexander and Antoinette Taylor
(Chandler) Brunson. His father before him was
a prominent lawyer and for ten years held the office
of probate judge. The son was educated in private
schools, attended South Carolina College, now the
University of South Carolina, being a member of
the class of 1889. At intervals of other work prin-
cipally teaching, he read law under his father and
was admitted to the bar in December, 1894. He
made little attempt to build up a practke, and gave
his time to teaching and educatk>nal affairs until
191 1, when he succeeded his father as probate judge
and has held that office continuously. During his
teaching career he taught at Lynchburg, Batesburg,
was principal of the Florence High School, prin-
cipal of schools at Georgetown and for three years
connected with the schools of Spartanburg.
Judge Brunson is a director of Palmetto Bank
& Trust Company and also director of the Far-
mers and Mechanics Bank. He is a member of
the Masonic Order, Junior Order United American
Mechanics and Knights of Pythias January i,
1908, he married Miss Annie Louise Mcintosh of
Lynchburg, South Carolina. They have two daugh-
ters, Sarah Antoinette and Edith Woods. Judge
Brunson is an active member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church South.
Elias Earle Child was born in Pickens County,
South Carolina, Mav 24, 1880, a son of Rufus Alex-
ander and Essie (Holcombe) Child. His father
was an attorney and for twenty-five years was a
hard working member of the Methodist Conference.
He married on December 2, 1903. Miss Nola
Klugh, daughter of William W. and Ida (Frank-
lin) Klugh. Her father was a planter. To their
marriage were born two children named William
Klugh and Earl Holcombe.
Mr. Child is president and treasurer of the Glenn-
Lawry Manufacturing Company, a $2,000,000 cotton
goods mill, and president of the Bank of Whit-
mire, Whitmire, South Carolina.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
93
Jacob George Wannamaker, M. D. Though a
graduate in medicine of forty-five years standing
Doctor Wannamaker used his professional talents
chiefly as a business man, was a druggist, banker
and was pronlinent in the affairs of his native
city up to the time of his death.
He was bom in Orangeburg County, April 14,
1852, son of Jacob G. and Matilda (Colclasure)
Wannamaker. His father was a large planter
and served through the war between the states
as captain in the Confederate army. Doctor Wanna-
maker was a descendant of Lieut. Jacob Wanna-
maker of Revolutionary fame.
Doctor Wannamaker was educated in private
schools, attended the University of South Carolina
and was graduated from the Medical College of
South Carolina at Charleston in 1874. He began
practice at Orangeburg and in 1875 entered the
drug business. From 1887 to 1892 he was in the
wholesale drug business in Columbia and Charles-
ton, but returned to Orangeburg and enlarged his
drug business, the firm being known as the J. G.
Wannamaker Manufacturing Company. He was
president of this concern up to the time of his
death.
Doctor Wannamaker was president and one -of
the organizers of the Bank of Orangeburg, was
chairman of the Board of Commissioners of Pub-
lic Works of Orangeburg for many years and was
vke president of the South Carolina Pharmaceutical
Association. He was always active in the aflFairs
of his city and state.
On October 7, 1875, Doctor Wannamaker was
married to Carrie E. Connor, daughter of Lewis
E. and Mary (Mellerd) Connor. To this union
there were born seven children. The oldest boy,
Walter M., died in 1900, and the second daughter,
Janie Mae, died in 1910. The following children
surviving the subject of this sketch are: Goldie C,
wife of Robert C. Holman, of Barnwell; Jacob
George, Jr., Carrie B., wife of Howard P. Dew;
Lewis C, and William J., all of Orangeburg.
Doctor Wannamaker died on May 17, 1919, at
the age of sixty-seven years.
Hon. Henry Johnson, the first state senator
from Allendale County, has been an able lawyer at
Allendale since he began practice ten years ago.
Senator Johnson was born at Bowman in Orange-
burg County, September 10, 1888, a son of John
W. and Lorena (Bowman) Johnson. The town
where he was born has been the home of the
Bowmans for several generations, and the town was
named for his maternal ancestors. Senator John-
son's great-grandfather Johnson came from Massa-
chusetts to Charleston about 1800. The grand-
father, Henry L. Johnson, was born at Charleston
and in early life settled at Williston in Barnwell
County, where the family has since lived. John
W. Johnson was born in Barnwell County.
Senator Johnson grew up in Barnwell County,
attended school at Williston, and graduated with
the class of 1906 from The Citadel at Charleston.
He is a graduate of the law department of the
University of South Carolina of the class of 1909,
and in the same year began practice at Allendale.
He is said by all to be an exceptionally capable
and skillful lawyer and has more than a local repu-
tation in his profession.
He was elected state senator from Barnwell
County in 1916, serving during the sessions of 1917-
18. The new county of Allendale, with Allendale
as county seat, formed from portions of Barnwell
and Hampton counties, was organized in January,
1919, and at that time Mr. Johnson resigned as
senator from Barnwell and was chosen for the new
county.
During the war Senator Johnson was chairman
of the Third Liberty Loan campaign for the Second
Congressional District, was a member of the Legal
Advisory Board, and earnestly supported all meas-
ures for the vigorous prosecution of the war. Sena-
tor Johnson married in 1909 Miss Alene All, of
Allendale. They have one daughter, Ida Doris
Johnson.
Eugene Gibson Hinson. Qualified for the prac-
tice of law in 1917, Eugene Gibson Hinson spent
nearly two years in the army, and in the spring of
1919 he appropriately chose as his home and place
of practice jthe Town of Allendale, recently estab-
lished as the county seat of the new County of
Allendale. This is a rich and promising section
of South Carolina, and Mr. Hinson entered prac-
tice with every qualification for an able and suc-
cessful career.
He was born at Marion, South Carolina, in
1S94, son of L. L. and Lulu (Gibson) Hinson.
The Hinsons for several generations have been
planters on James Island. Mr. Hinson grew up at
Marion and acquired a liberal education, graduat-
ing in both the literary and law courses from the
University of South Carolina. He was a member
of the class of 1917.
Soon after the outbreak of hostilities with Ger-
many he entered the First Officers Training Camp
at Fort Oglethorpe, and was commissioned second
lieutenant. He was first assigned to duty with the
Eighty-first Division, later was transferred to the
Fourteenth Division and stationed at Camp Cus-
ter, Michigan. While there he was promoted to
first lieutenant. After twenty-two months in the
army he received his honorable discharge Febru-
ary 28, 1919.
Mr. Hinson then located at Allendale and has
rapidly adapted himself to his new environment,
and has a substantial law practice. He is a mem-
ber of the Presb)rterian Church and a Mason in
fraternal affiliation.
Mr. Hinson married Miss Agnes Katharine Gibbs,
of Atlanta. However, she is a member of the his^
toric Gibbs family of Charleston. Her father was
Charles E. Gibbs of Charleston.
LeRoy Wilson has been a resident of Allendale
nearly all his life, and for over twenty years has
been an effective and public spirited factor in the
advancement and upbuilding of that city not only
as a commercial center but as the seat of justice
of the recently organized Allendale County. Mr.
Wilson was one of the leaders of the new county
movement.
Mr. Wilson, who is president of the Citizens
Bank of Allendiale, was born -in Bamberg County,
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
South Carolina, in 1876, son of Capt. LcRoy and
Mary E. (Brabham) Wilson. Both the Wilson
and Brabham families are of Scotch ancestry, and
the Brabhams have long held a high place in the
history and social affairs of Bamberg County. Capt.
LcRoy Wilson was a native of Barnwell, now
Allendale County, and lived in Allendale from 1878.
He was a planter and merchant, conducted a farm
in the neighborhood of Allendale and was a non-
commissioned officer in the Confederate army. The
Wilsons are of an old South Carolina family, ante-
dating the Revolutionary period and coming from
England. Mr. Wilson took part in the Red Shirt
brigade during the reconstruction period. He was
active in. Masonry during his younger days, and
died at the age of eighty-four in February, 191 1.
The family moved to Allendale in 1878, and here
LeRoy Wilson was reared and educated. As a
youth he chose commercial pursuits, and the ac-
crued wisdom and experience of passing years has
given him a dominating position in the commu-
nity. The Citizens Bank was organized in igop.
Under the presidency and active management of
Mr. Wilson this is a strong financial institution,
and has furthered in many ways the expansion of
his home community. The bank has a capital
stock of $30,000, surplus and undivided profits of
about $13,000, and deposits aggregating about
$350,000.
In November, 1919, Mr. Wilson organized the
Allendale Grocery Company, with capital of
$50,000, engaged in the wholesale grocery busi-
ness. This institution has already served to empha-
size Allendale's position as the center of an im-
portant and flourishing trade territory. Mr. Wil-
son is president of the company. The new County
of Allendale, in the creation of which Mr. Wil-
son had a creditable part, comprises territory origi-
nally in Bamberg and Barnwell counties. Mr. Wil-
son was also a leader in the various patriotic move-
ments in his locality during the World war.
He married Miss Ge Delle Brabham, of Bam-
berg County, daughter of H. J. Brabham, of Bam-
berg. They have two children, Mary Adele and
LeRoy, jr.
Cham-ton DuRant, former state senator, lawyer,
business man and banker of Manning, has been a
prominent factor in the life and alfairs of that
community for over twenty years.
Hfe was born at Bluff ton, Georgia, in 1874, son of
E. C. and Virginia (Tinsley) DuRant His an-
cestors were French, Scotch and Irish. His early
advantages were limited to the common schools and
he has been the architect of his own fortune and
career. By close study he . was admitted to the
South Carolina bar in 1807, and began practice
as member of the firm of Wilson & DuRant at Man-
ning with whom he continued till 1906. In the
meantime from 1890 to 1894 he was an express
messenger and thus earned his living while preparing
for his professional career. Since 1916 be has been
a member of the firm of DuRant & Eller Company.
Mr. DuRant organized in 191 1 and has since been
president of the Home Bank & Trust Company of
Manning. This institution has $25,000 capital, sur-
plus, of $15,000, while its deposits aggregate over
$500,000. He is also member of the firm of DuRant
& Floyd, and attorney and manager of the Clar-
endon Building & Loan Association and president.
Clarendon Telephone Company. Mr. DuRant was
a member of the State Senate during 1916-17-18.
Benjamin Hart Moss has practiced law at
Orangeburg since 1883, is still a busy lawyer, and
has handled many interests and responsibilities otit-
side the direct limits of his profession.
He was born in Orangeburg County, January 17.
1862, son of William C. and Rebecca C. (Raysor)
Moss, and a grandson of Stephen Moss and the
great-grandson of Stephen Moss, who established the
family in South Carolina from Virginia prior to the
Revolutionary war. Benjamin Hart Moss grew up on
a farm near Orangeburg, attended local schools, in-
cluding the Orangeburg High School, and after-
ward entered Wofford College, where he gradu-
ated in 1883. He has preferred the steady prac-
tice of law and business to politics, though in 1899
he was elected a member of the Legislature, serving
one term and voluntarily retired. He has also been
a circuit judge. He has been and is president of
the Edisto National Bank of Orangeburg, has
served as trustee of Wofford College, and has been
especially interested jn education, serving repeat-
edly on the Orangeburg School Board. He is a
democrat, a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, is affiliated with the Masonic Order
and the Woodmen of the World.
November 16, 1892, he married F. Agnes DibMc,
daughter of Hon. Samuel Dibble, one of the most
prominent names in the Orangeburg bar. To their
marriage were born four children, three of whom
reached mature years, Samuel Dibble Moss, May
Caroline Moss and Agnes Henley Moss.
Adam H<m.man Moss has been a- member of the
Orangeburg bar for many years, and while the
law has commanded the better part of his time
he has also .been a factor in public affai:is at dif-
ferent times.
He was born at St. Matthews,. South Carolina,
September 16, 1871, a son of James M. and Mar-
garet (Holman) Moss. He grtw up on his father's
farm, attended private schools, and graduated from
Wofford College in 1892. Mr. Moss studied law
in private offices and was admitted to the bar in
1895. For two years he taught school, but for a
quarter of a century has been engaged in the prac-
tice of law. He served as a captain in the Spanish-
American war. He served two terms as a member
of the Legislature, having been elected from
Orangeburg in 1900 and 1904. He is chairman of
the County Democratic Committee and director of
the Bank of Orangeburg. Mr. Moss is affiliated
with the Order of Elks.
He married Anne Norwood, of Greenville, and
their two children are James Alexander and Loaisa
Norwood.
Charles G. Dantzler. A number of distin-
guished South Carolinians have borne the family
name of Dantzler. The Dantzlers came oriinnally
from Germany and established their homes . in the
Carolinas prior to the Revolution. Charles G. Dimtz-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
95
ler was born at Orangeburg, March 19, 1854. His
grandfather, Jacob H, Dantzler, was prominent in
public life. His father, Olin M. Dantzler, was
trained as a lawyer, but followed the business of
planter, and during the war between the states
commanded the Twenty-second South Carolina Vol-
unteers and was killed in battle in 1864. His wife,
Caroline Glover, was a daughter of Dr. Charles
Glover, who attained eminence as a physician.
Charles G. Dantzler was educated at Mount Zion
Institute, Winnsboro, attended King's Mountain
Military School at Yorkville, and from 1871 to 1875
was a student of Wofford College, where he gradu-
ated with honors. He then took up the practice
of law and for over forty years his name has stood
in the front rank of the Orangeburg District. He
was elected in 1884 and served for six years as
representative of Orangeburg County in the Legis-
lature. In January, 1902, he was elected Circuit
Judge of the First Judicial Circuit. Judge Dantz-
ler is a member of the Masonic Order, is affiliated
with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and
has served as a trustee of Wofford College. He
married in 1876 Laura A. Moss. He has two daugh-
ters, Carrie M. and Annie W.
David K. Bricx;s, M. D. After thirty-six years
devoted to his chosen vocation Doctor Briggs is
still active as a physician and surgeon, going his
daily rounds, and keeping in close touch with the
affairs of his home community at Blackville and
also with the larger interests of his profession.
A resident of Blackville most of his life. Doctor
Briggs was born at Charleston, February $, 1862.
Hts father was David Briggs, whose life was one
of more than ordinary interest and achievement.
Bom at Sidney, Maine, in 1819, he was a New
En^Ismd farmer, and about 1840 came to South
Carolina. He lived in Charleston for several years,
and in 1849 with a party of friends sailed around
Cape Horn to the California gold fields. After
some more or less profitable but very interesting
experiences on the Pacific Coast he returned to
Charleston and engaged in the paint and oil busi-
ness. In 1870 he moved to Blackville, and after
that lived on a plantation and followed farming
until his death in 1888. While a native of the
North, he espoused the cause of the South in the
time of war, though on account of physical disabil-
ities was not in the Confederate army. However,
he did some valuable service as a blockade run-
ner, bringing in supplies to Charleston Harbor.
Because of some of his exploits the Federal Gov-
ernment offered a large reward* for him dead or
alive. Throughout his life he exemplified the char-
acter of a good, plain citizen, and gave his best
energies to the .welfai*e of his chosen state. He
was of English descent while his wife, Sarah A.
Kcene, was Scotch. She was born at Augusta,
Maine, and died in 1889.
Doctor Briggs received his first advantages in
the schools of Charleston, later attended school at
Blackville, and in 1884 graduated M. D. from the
College of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore.
He has never allowed any important interests to
interfere with a fixed devotion to his profession.
He is local surgeon for the Southern Railway
Company, has been president of the county and
district medical societies, and during the war was
examining physician for the Selective Draft Board.
He is also a member of the American Medical
Association. Doctor Briggs has never found time
nor inclination for activity in politics. He is a
York Rite Mason and Shriner, a Knight of Pythias
and Woodmen of the World.
Doctor Briggs helped organize the Presbyterian
Church at Blackville in 1893, was chosen one of
its first elders, and has discharged the duties of
that office for a quarter of a century. He married
in 1887 Ida C. Dodenhoff, a native of Blackville.
Her father, Capt. Henry Dodenhoff, was born in
Hanover, Germany, while her mother was of an
old southern family.
Philip Alston Willcx)x, senior member of the
law firm of Willcox & Willcox, Florence, South
Carolina, was bom in Marion, South Carolina, on
the 4th of December, 1866., He graduated from the
University of South Carolina, in 1888, and was
admitted to the bar in 1880. He is general solici-
tor for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company,
and represents several large corporate interests,
among them being the Standard Oil Company, the
Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Company,
and the Western Union Telegraph Company. He
was president of the South Carolina Bar Associa-
tion 1919-1920; is a member of the general council
of the American Bar Association, and a trustee of
University of South Carolina. He is an officer
and director of several business institutions,
banks, etc.
Miles J. Walker, M. D. For over sixty years
the Walker family of York County has been dis-
tinguished by the abilities and attainments of its
representatives in the profession of medicine and
surgery. Dr. Miles J. Walker has practiced steadily
for nearly forty years, while his brother. Dr.
George Walker, of Baltimore, has earned national
and international fame as a surgeon and scientist.
The Walkers were of Revolutionary stock. Six
of Dr. Miles J. Walker's father's brothers were
in the Confederate army during the war between
the states.
Dr. Miles J. Walker was bofn in York County
in i8.'>7, son of Dr. William Millard and Mary Ellen
(Hudson) Walker. This is a very old family in
York County. Dr. W. M. Walker was born there,
a son of John Walker, and spent all his active
life as a practicing dentist. He was also a Confed-
erate soldier, serving throughout the war.
Dr. Miles J. Walker acquired his literary train-
ing in the King's Mountain Military Academy at
York while it was under the direction of that ven-
erable educator Colonel Coward. He graduated in
medicine from the Louisville Medical College in
1879, and after a brief practice in Union County
removed to York. He has taken post-graduate
work in the Johns Hopkins University and is widely
known for his attainments and services in the medi-
cal profession. He was district counsellor for the
Fifth District, State Medical Association, has been
chairman of the Board of Health of York for
twenty years, and is a menfbcr of the county, state
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
and American associations. Dr. Miles J. Walker
was surgeon for the First Regiment of Militia for
ten years, but had to leave the service on account
of a broken limb. He retired with the rank of
major.
Doctor Walker married Miss Nannie E. Walker,
of Union County. Their children are Mrs. R. E.
Sharp, Mrs. J. E. Nesbit, Mrs. John Porter Hollis,
and Mrs. Henry Grady Hardin.
Though for many years a resident of Baltimore,
a brief sketch of Dr. George Walker has an appro-
priate place in this volume. He was born at.York-
ville, now York, July 27, 1869, was educated in
South Carolina College and in the medical depart-
ment of the University of Maryland. From the time
of his graduation in 1889 until 1895 he practiced
at York, South Carolina, and since 1895 has lived
in Baltimore. He was connected with the Johns
Hopkins University, and in 1905 was made asso-
ciate in surgery in that institution. He became
chairman of the Maryland Statewide Vice Com-
mission in 1913, and is a director of the Social
Service Corporation of Baltimore. He is an hon-
ored member of a number of professional and
scientific organizations, and is an honorary member
of the York Medical Society.
The work which has brought him his greatest
fame was during the World war. In 1917 he was
commissioned major of the Medical Reserve Corps,
and is a member of the Johns Hopkins Unit which
went to France in June, 191 7. The personnel of
that unit included several other physicians of world
renown. After a few months, with the approval
of General Pershing, Dr. George Walker was put
in complete charge of venereal diseases for the en-
tire American Expeditionary Forces and was pro-
moted to the rank of colonel. It was through the
original methods adopted at the instance of Colonel
Walker that the venereal disease rate in the Ameri-
can army was reduced below that of aay other
army in Europe. Since returning to America Doc-
tor Walker has given his entire time and talents
to a nation-wide campaign against venereal diseases.
He has worked for the co-operation of governors,
legislators and other organized bodies of public
opinion to secure the enactment of suitable legis-
lation to reduce the ravages of such disease$ and
safeguard the public against them. All this work
Doctor Walker has undertaken at his own expense
and as a continuation of the social and scientific
service in which he has long been engaged.
Franklin Jacob Geiger, M. D. While his individ-
ual record was impressive on account of his service
as a Confederate surgeon, and the many years he
gave to a large country practice in what is now
Calhoun . County, Dr. Franklin Jacob Geiger was
not the only conspicuous member of his family in
the state.
The first of the name was Herman Geiger, who
immigrated either from Switzerland or Germany,
and settled in Saxe Gotha Township on the Conga-
ree River, about eight miles below the City of
Columbia in 1737. The Salley Documentary Sources
of State History from 1704 to 1782 make reference
to the Geiger family, and another reference is
found on page 302 of Logan's History of South
Carolina. The fourth son of Herman Geiger was
John Geiger, the third son of John was William,
and the first son of William was John Conrad
Geiger.
John Conrad Geiger, father of Dr. Franklin Jacob
Geiger, was born August 24, 1801, and died March
10, 1870. He owned a large plantation, many slaves,
was prominent in state politics, was a member of
the Legislature and was a member of the Seces-
sion Convention and a signer of the Ordinance of
Secession. He married Ellen Baker who was bom
in January, 1809, and died May 28', 1881,. being a
daughter of William Baker of Lexington County.
Franklin Jacob Geiger was born at Sandy Run
in Lexington County, December 20, 1835. He was
educated in the Sandy Run Academy and the Shir-
ley Institute at Winnsboro and was graduated from
the Medical College of the State of South Carolina
with the class of 1858. Soon afterward he removed
to Mississippi and practiced in that state until the
outbreak of the war between the states, when he
returned to South Carolina and joined the Confed-
erate army. He was in the service from the begin-
ning until the end of the war, and as an assistant
surgeon was stationed with the defenses around
Charleston, Fort Sumter, Battery Wagner and other
points. The fortunes of war left him in straight-
ened financial circumstances, and he then settled in
the northern section of Orangeburg^ now Calhoun
County, and for more than forty years diligently
practiced his profession and also looked after his
farming interests. His character entitled him to
the respect and esteem he enjoyed, and a large
family of children feel themselves honored to count
him as their father. He died November 30, 1910.
He served as trustee of the local schools, was a
democrat, was a believer in State's Rights, and dur-
ing the reconstruction period had an active part
in his locality in restoring white rule. He served
as worshipful master of Oliver Lodge No. 133,
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and was a
member and elder of the Sandy Run Lutheran
Church.
At Charleston, March 8, i860, he married Anna
Elizabeth Geiger, daughter of Godfrey Herman and
Elizabeth (Lorick) Geiger. Her father was a Lex-
ington County farmer and her mother was a daufi^-
ter of Michael Lorick, likewise an extensive planter
in Lexington County. Mrs. Doctor Geiger died July
20, 1905. They were the parents of thirteen chil-
dren, briefly noted as follows: Elizabeth Horlbeck;
Ellen Baker, who married P. H. E. Derrick; Dr.
Charles Blum, a prominent physician at Manning,
a sketch of whom appears elsewhere; William
Henry, who was turned to death in a fire at Man-
ning, December 13, 1895; John Franklin, a dentist
at "Manning; Herbert Lorick, who married Leola
Wolfe; Godfrey Herman, who married Susan
Whitefield; Stephen Elliott; Mary Louisa; Anna
Esther ; Ruf us Baker, who married Gertrude Smith ;
Percy Lee and Harold Conrad.
Charles Blum Geiger. M. D. Oldest son of Dr.
Franklin Jacob Geiger, Dr. Charles Blum Geiger's
professional career was coincident with that of
his father for about twenty years. He has been
a physician and surgeon since 1889, and faithfully
and well has served the innumerable calls upon his
time and energies not only in the strict routine of
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
97
his profession but in many other community inter-
ests. As his father was a Confederate soldier, so
Dr. Charles B. Gciger was for over a year a mem-
ber of the Medical Reserve Corps of the United
States army during the World war.
Charles Blum Geiger was born in Lexington
County, South Carolina, June 19, 1867, and grew
up in the St. Mathews section of Orangeburg Coun-
ty, where, owing to the reduced circumstances of
his father's fortune after the war and during the
reconstruction period he had only the limited ad-
vantages of country schools and had many duties
on the farm. By night study he prepared him-
self for entrance to the South Carolina Medical
College in 1889, and was graduated in 1892. For
one year he served as house physician and surgeon
in St. Francis Xavier Infirmary at Charleston, and
since then -has been in active practice at Man-
ning. For a quarter of a century, with the excep-
tion of a period spent in the war, he has been on
almost day and night duty as a physician and sur-
geon at Manning. For four years he served as
a member of the Manning Board of Health, is a
member of the County Pension Board, for two years
was a member of the Board of County Commis-
sioners and has been active in the County, State
and Medical Association and a director of the
Bank of Clarendon.
Doctor Geiger served with the rank of first
lieutenant in the Medical Corps from August 16,
1917, to November 30, 1918. He is a Royal Arch
Mason and a Woodman of the World. On June
I9» 1907, he married Miss Nettie Weinberg of
Manning.
His brother, John Franklin Geiger, has been a
leading dental practitioner at Manning for over
twenty years. He was born in Orangeburg County,
August 22, 1871, and is a graduatj of the Balti-
more College of Dental Surgery with the class of
1895. He is a member of the State and National
Dental Societies. John F. Geiger married Decem-
ber 23, 1896, Belle Gallughat. Their five children
are Emily, William Erving, Virginia, , Rosa Lee and
Anna Belle.
Drayton Margart Crosson, M. D. More than
thirty-five years ago Doctor Crosson began the prac-
tice of his profession, and since then many enviable
distinctions have crowned his work as a physician
and surgeon, as a business man and a public leader.
He is one of a family of many distinguished
members and of long and influential residence in
Xewberry and Lexington counties. He was bom at
Prosperitj' in Newberry County, September 29, 1858,
a son of John Thomas Pressley and Rosa Catherine
(Cook) Crosson. For more than a century his
people have been identified with Newberry County.
His great-great-grandfather, Alexander Crosson,
came from Ireland. His grandfather was James
Crosson, a merchant, planter and magistrate of
Newberry County, who married a member of the
Halfacre family. John Thomas Prcssly Crosson
graduated at Erskine College, and taught until mar-
ried, then was also a planter. Rosa Catherine Cook
was a daughter of John Cook, a well known and
wealthy planter who married a sister of Sen. John
C. Hope.
Vol. v— 7
Doctor Crosson grew up at a time *when the
State of South Carolina and its citizens were suf-
fering from the blight of war, but he had good
home advantages, and especially from both his
mother and father received every encouragement for
intellectual development. He developed a good
physique on his father's farm, and when only a
boy determined to become a physician. He paid
part of the expenses of his preparatory course in
the Prosperity Academy, was a student for three
years at Erskine College and in 1879 entered South
Carolina Medical College. Two years later he was
graduated and in 1883 completed his medical course
in the University of Tennessee at Nashville with
first honors in his class and has since from time to
time took courses in Baltimore and New York.
Since his graduation he has carried the heavy and
continuous burdens of a physician and surgeon. He
served a number of years as president of the
County Medical Society of Lexington County, and
has also been active in the State Medical Associa-
tion.
Doctor Crosson has acquired extensive farm in-
terests and at one time and probably now is- the
largest planter in Lexingtcai County. He has served
on the medical examining board for Lexington
County and volunteered for service with the medi-
cal reserve corps. Just before the armistice was
signed he would have gone to France, if needed.
He has found time for participation in public af-
fairs, serving as county chairman of the democratic
party, and in 1900 was elected to the State Senate
and was re-elected in 1908 and served until 1912.
He has recently taken active steps to organize the
Farmers and Merchants Bank of Leesville. South
Carolina, his home town, and was without opposi-
tion unanimously elected its president. He is chair-
man of the Lexington County Cotton Growers' As-
sociation and takes an active interest in all agri-
cultural affairs, both state and national. While in
the Senate he introduced the first good roads
(highway) bill and advocated a state highway de-
partment and engineers, and a license on automo-
biles for its maintenance. He has lived to see these
ideas all put into effect. The National (Highway)
or Good Roads Association has made him a life
member. He is always an advocate for progressive
advancements, professionally, educationally, socially,
financially and religiously, and of everything that
will upbuild the country. He is a Mason, Knight
of Pythias, Odd Fellow and Woodmen of the World,
and a Methodist in religious affiliation. Doctor
Crosson married Miss S. C. Bodie in 1883, and to
their union were born seven children. Two of them
are living.
George William Boylston. One of the most
interesting men in the old community of Blackville
is George William Boylston, who before he was
eighteen years of age entered the Confederate army,
served all through the war, never surrendered, and
for more than half a century has been identified
with planting and other interests in his home local-
ity. In Confederate reunions for many years he
has been one of the most picturesque figures, and
he has a rare memory for the events in which he
participated, and the fact that he saw many of the
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most important phases of warfare in his native
state gives his reminiscences unusual value.
Mr. Boylston was born at Blackville, near the
Edisto River, February 27, 1843. His parents were
Austin and Mary (Reed) Boylston. His great-
grandfather was William Boylston, who was bom
July 24, 1802, of Scotch parentage. His grand-
father was born in Virginia. His mother's father,
Samuel Reed, was sent to America with an appoint-
ment as surveyor by King George III. He received
a crown grant of 5,000 acres of land, some of which
is in the possession of his descendants to this day.
He came to South Carolina from Ireland in 1774.
His daughter was born in December, 1801. Two
of Mr. Boylston's great-uncles fought in the Revo-
lution. His paternal grandmother was Alice Cloud,
wife of George Boylston. His maternal grand-
mother was Mary Clark, wife of Samuel Reed.
His maternal great-grand uncle, Malcolm Clark,
was reported missing in the Revolutionary war.
He was a justice in Orangeburg District in 1775,
and was commissioned by President Rutledge jus-
tice of the peace in 1776.
The Boylstons have always been planters. George
W. Boylston acquired his early education in what
is now Barnwell County. He really had a double
enlistment for the war. The first company he
joined did not attain its full quota and therefpre
in September, 1861, he enlisted in heavy artillery
under Capt. afterwards Col. Tom Lamar, who
appointed him ordnance sergeant of Company B,
Second Regiment, Heavy Artillery. He received
his baptism of fire on June 16, 1862, an engage-
ment in which forty-three of his comrades were
killed or wounded. Mr. Boylston seems to have
led a charmed life, since on countless occasions
he was exposed to danger and had many narrow
escapes. One time a bullet passed through the
top of his hat and killed has friend, Captain Reed.
His company was the first encamped on James Is-
land in the defenses around Charleston, and for
days and months they were exposed to constant
fire. Mr. Boylston was present on the occasion
when the timely arrival of the Louisiana Tigers
compelled the enemy to draw oflF from what prom-
ised to be a successful advance upon the southern
fortifications. At Fort Johnson Mr. Boylston had
charge of the magazine. Shells from the enemy's
ships struck and exploded the magazine, killing
all the men inside, Mr. Boylston being fortunately
on the outside, and escaped with serious shock and
disability from duty for a time. He also recalls
the enemy gun which the Confederates named "The
Swamp Angel" located on the upper end of Mor-
ris Island. Shells from this gun carried six miles
into Charleston, passing over Mr. Boylston's bat-
tery.
It was the duty of Mr. Boylston to fuse all the
shells. He noted a difference in the carrying power,
and one day General Beauregard came to him and
asked why some of the fuses were so much less
effective than others, and his reply was that some
were much softer and therefore probably defective.
The general promised to send better fuses, and did
so the next day.
Mr. Boylston is the only member of the original
battery alive today. He has a personal knowledge
of the facts in one of the interesting stories told
by the old veterans, when Confederate guns were
trained on 600 southern soldiers, and Mr. Boylston
in recalling the event says that while it was a mat-
ter of general congratulation that none of the 600
men was wounded, their escape was not creditable
to southern marksmanship. These men afterward
became known as the Immortal Six Hundred, and
their story has been told and retold at Confederate
reunions.
Mr. Boylston also recalls the occasion when a
number of Federal barges loaded with troops were
stealing up under cover of darkness for a surprise
on the southern forts, when they were themselves
surprised and the majority of the men on the trans-
port killeck At one time, says Mr. Boylston, the
enemy were advancing on the works which had
been thrown up after the magazine explosion, and
the Federal color bearer planted his flag on the edge.
He was shot down, and the Confederates made an
. effort to capture the colors, but it was rescued be-
" fore they could do so. As the Federals retired they
reached over the works and seized a Confederate
and carried him away a prisoner of war.
Mr. Boylston is also one of the surviving Con-
federates who can give from personal examination
an accurate description of the first submarines, which
as history shows were originally perfected by the
southern government and first put into use during
the war. These boats were called "The Davids."
He can describe them in detail, and it is his con-
firmed belief that the American who later gained
fame as the inventor of the modern submarine
undoubtedly took his ideas from the undersea
boats used by the Confederacy. A description ot
these submarmes appeared in the Columbia Record
of March 27^ 1917, and Mr. Boylston, who has
examined that account, says that in the main it is
correct, though it is not true that hand pumping
was resorted to, since he especially noticed how the
pumps were geared in with other machinery, and
it was explained how this mechanism was worked.
When Sherman took Atlanta and came north
through the Carolinas Mr. Boylston and his com-
rades left Charleston May 18, 1865, passing up into
North Carolina, where they had several fights with
Sherman's advance guard. After Lee's surrender
Mr. Boylston had several narrow escapes from cap-
ture and from death. He was delegated to carry
messages to the pickets, the last time all alone, and
he always returned safely. After Lee's surrender
and in the resulting confusion the commanding
officer told Mr. Boylston and his comrades that they
could go, and thirteen of them set out for home
through a country filled with the enemy. They
were practically without food, and they kept their
one colored servant constantly scouting for supplies.
This negro declared he had asked for food in the
name of every northern general he could remember.
After an exposure to innumerable hardships and
difficulties for eleven days Mr. Boylston reached
his home community and participated in a joyful
reunion with his loved ones. It has been a matter
of lasting satisfaction that he is one of the thirteen
men who never surrendered and who never took
the oath of allegiance.
The years following the war Mr. Boylston has
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
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devoted to planting, and though now seventy-seven
years of age he is still active, goes about his afiFairs
with the energy and spirit of many younger men,
and his wife also possesses the spirit of youth.
They enjoy life to the full in their attractive home
in Blackville. Among the many mementos of his
war service Mr. Boylston carefully preserves and
cherishes the Cross of Honor bestowed upon him
for bravery and courage. He and his wife are
earnest members of the Baptist Church.
Mr. Boylston was the nrst school trustee ap-
pointed on the Edisto River after, the Civil war,
holding Aat office for many years, finally resigning
in favor of a nephew. He is a member of Morrall
Camp of Confederate Veterans. Mr. Boylston has
been a worker in the Baptist Church* for sixty-two
years and served eighteen years on the executive
committee of the Baptist Association. He and his
two brothers were reared in the Baptist faith,
married daughters of Methodist ministers, but all
became Baptists and reared their children in tjiat
faith. . Tx. /.
Mr. Boylston was married three times. His first
wife was Fanny Crum, daughter of Rev. Lewis
Crum. His second wife was Carrie Euphrasia,
daughter of Daniel Riley. The present Mrs. Boyl-
ston bore the maiden name of Emma Warren, whose
father, Frederick Warren, was related to the famous
Warren family of Boston, Massachusetts. Her
father died on a ship he commanded, a victim of
yellow fever, and was buried at sea four months
before Mrs. Boylston's birth. Her mother was
Jane Mirvin. Mrs. Boylston received a superior
education at Charleston, and she heard the first
gun fired in the harbor, marking the beginning of
the Civil war. She is of Irish-American ancestry
and is a member of Davis-Lee Chapter, United
Daughters of the Confederacy. Her first husband
was Elijah Samuel Reed, by whom she had six
children, three of whom died after they were mar-
ried, leaving descendants. Her grandson Gilmore
Mixon is the father of her first great-grandchild,
Eva Corrine. Mrs. Boylston was born at Charles-
ton, February 14, 1854- ,. ^ ., t:.
Mr. Boylston had a son by his first wife, Eugene
Boylston, of Blackville. His daughter Leila Estelle
married Dr. George Hair of Bamberg, and their
daughter, Mrs. J. J. Cudd, of Spartanburg pre-
sented Mr. Boylston with his first great-grandchild,
Aileen. He has four grandchildren. By his second
marriage there were two sons and two daughters.
Mr. Boylston has in his home a speaking likeness
of a beautiful young daughter, Ella, who gave
promise of achieving great fame in the musical
world, but who died in early girlhood.
Major Henry Cumming Tillman, one of the two
sons of the late Senator B. R. Tillman, has for a
number of years practiced law at Greenwood,
though for a year and a half all his time was given
to the government as an army officer in the great
"^Major Tillman is a graduate of Clemson College,
which was founded during his father s administra-
tion as a governor. He received the Bachelor of
Science degree in 1903 and took his law course at
Washington and Lee University, graduating in 1905.
He began practice at Greenwood in 1906, and 15
senior of the law firm Tillman, Mays & Harris, with
offices in Greenwood and Anderson.
Prior to the war with Germany he was captain
of the Fifth Company, Coast Artillery, National
Guard, of South Carolina. As commander of that
company he was mustered into the National Army
in July, 1917, and later was transferred to the com-
mand of Headquarters Company, Sixty-First Artil-
lery, Coast Artillery Corps. He went overseas to
France in July, 1918, and before the signing of the
armistice was promoted to major of the Second
Battalion and transferred to the Sixty-Second Artil-
lery. Major Tillman returned home in February,
19 19, and upon his release from the army resumed
his law practice.
Major Tillman has always been a keen student of
politics and public questions, and has given an ex-
ample of good citizenship in his home community.
He is associated with a number of fraternal orders
and is a member of the Episcopal Church. He
married Miss Mary Fox, of BatesDurg. Their three
children are: Mary, Adeline and Sarah Stark.
Charles Valk Boykin is distinguished among
the successful business men and executives of
Charleston by the power of a creative faculty,
which, supplemented with a high degree of business
courage and energy, has enabled him in a few short
years, from original resources consisting largely of
"vision" of the future, to build up a ^eat industry,
Mr. Boykin was born in Charleston m 1878, at the
home of his mother, though his parents, Allen J. and
Elizabeth C. (Courtney) Boykin, at that time lived
in Kershaw County. The Boykins are a very prom-
inent and historic family of Camden and Kershaw
counties. Many details of the family history are
contained in the work "Historic Camden" published
a few years ago. The founder of the famfly came
from England about 1760, and for his services in
the Indian wars was given a crown grant of land
consisting of about 11,000 acres a few miles below
Camden. The Boykins have owned and occupied
portions of that land ever since. The ancestral resi-
dence, now more than a century old, is still stand-
ing. Mr. Boykin's grandfather, Alexander Hamil-
ton Boykin, though strongly opposed to secession^
when secession became an actuality organized and'
fitted up at his own expense, including horses and'
other equipment, the noted Boykin Rangers. He
commanded this body of men two years, most of his-
service being in Virginia.
Charles Valk Boykin came to Charleston when a.
boy and learned the trade of machinist in the shops
of the old Valk and Murdoch Company on the-
waterfront. In a few years his qualifications stood'
as an expert machinist, particularly on boilers and'
marine machinery and equipment.
The Charleston Dry Dock & Medicine Company is^
chartered under the laws of the State of Delaware
with a capital stock of $2,500,000. The pay roll of
the company averages $15,000 per week, many
highly paid skilled mechanics being employed. The
company is noted for its fine work in the manufac-
ture of marine boilers. The traveling and porta-
ble cranes, lathes, drill presses, and particularly the
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
electric welding and compressed air machinery, are
of the most modem type. The dry dock can take
care of any ships that come into Charleston Harbor.
Electric power is used exclusively. Adjoining prop-
erty in addition to the original plat mentioned above
has been purchased, affording ample room on the
water front for further expansion. One feature is
a yacht basin, built to give private dockage facilities
for yachts. As the leading industrial enterprise of
Charleston, a large degree of the credit due the
present status of the company belongs to the inde-
fatigable energy and enthusiasm of Charles V.
Boykin.
Mr. Boykin married Miss Sarah Pearson Allen, of
Charleston, daughter of Mr. .and Mrs. James P. Al-
len. Their three children are Mary Allen, Elizabeth
Courtney and Charles V., Jr.
Rt. Rev. Mgr. P. L. Duffy, V. G., LL. D., Litt. D.
It is not alone the people of the diocese of Charles-
ton who appreciated the scholarly character and
services of Doctor Duffy. His wisdom and learning
and the ripe fruits of his experience were assets
to the culture of the state as a whole.
Doctor Duffy, who was vicar general of the
Catholic diocese of Charleston, spent most of his
life in that city, making his preliminary studies in
the public and private schools of Charleston. From
there he entered Mount St. Mary's College at
Emmitsburg, Maryland, graduating with the first
honors of his class and the Bachelor of Arts degree
in 1875. On completing his course in theology he
was accorded the degree A. M. in 1879, received
the degree LL. D. in 1894, and the honorary degree
Litt. D. was bestowed upon him in 1908 upon the
occasion of the delivery of the Centennial Ode at
the Centenary of that institution. Cardinal Gib-
bons, who conferred the degree, pronounced this ode
a masterpiece.
In 1908 Doctor Duffy published a volume of
poems, "A Wreath of Ilex Leaves," which was ac-
corded generous and deserved praise by the press.
He lectured before the College of Charleston on
"The Ideal in Literature and Art," and also before
the South Carolina Military Academy and else-
where. He was a contributor to the Catholic En-
cyclopedia, the Library of Southern Literature, and
other publications. At the request of the Daughters
of the Confederacy he composed and read the ode
on Memorial Day and on several occasions delivered
memorial addresses.
Through all the years since his graduation, more
than forty in number. Doctor Duffy was a very busy
clergyman, devoting himself to the interests of his
parish, especially to his schools and general educa-
tional work. He was appointed vicar general of
the diocese of Charleston in J911 and was made
a prelate of the Papal Court with the title of Mon-
signor by Pope Benedict in 1917.
The Rt. Rev. Mgr. P. L. Duffy. V. G., was born
March 25, 185 1, at Water ford, Ireland, and died
July 22, 1919, at Charleston, South Carolina.
Samuel Vincent Taylor is owner of the S. V.
Taylor Department Store at Greeleyville, a busi-
ness founded by his father, the late Samuel J.
Taylor, who deserves the historical credit of being
the founder of Greeleyville, and for many years
closely associated with every phase of its develop-
ment and improvement.
Samuel J. Taylor was bom at Charleston in 1840.
In 1 861 at the age of twenty-one he entered the
Confederate army, serving as color bearer of the
Sixth South Carolina Regiment, Jenkin's Brigade,
Longstreet's Corps. He was a soldier from the
beginning to the end of the war and saw much
of the strenuous fighting in Virginia. In the ten
years that followed the war he was stanchly allied
with the good citizens of South Carolina in striv-
ing to save the state from the ruin of recon-
struction and took a prominent part in the campaign
of 1876 which restored white man's government and
resulted in the election of Governor Wade Hamp-
ton. He was appointed a member of the staff of
Governor Hampton.
In the meantime Samuel J. Taylor had come to
the present site of Greeleyville in 1872. In part-
nership with S. J. Hudson he bought several hun-
dred acres of timber, and began the manufacture
of turpentine and rosin. Later he bought out his
partner and took in his brother-in-law, W. iS.
Varner, and they were associated for a number of
years. Samuel J. Taylor was an expert in the
naval stores industry, and his enterprise was the
source of most of the prosperity of the people
then living in this vicinity. His timber holdings
became exhausted after about fifteen years. It
had been his intention to remove his turpentine
equipment to new territory. However, he was very
much attached to Greeleyville, had acquired a large
body of land there, and had also begun the mer-
cantile business and for both financial and senti-
mental reasons he elected to remain at Greeleyville.
In promoting a town community here he was
actuated by the most liberal motives and wisdom.
He practically donated building lots to every indus-
trious and capable man who applied and who would
agree to construct and improve a good home. He
also gave land freely for street, churches and
schools, and long before his death had the satisfac-
tion of seeing his dreams realized in a beautiful town
with good streets, good homes -and business insti-
tutions, and surrounded, by a fine civic atmosphere.
Samuel J. Taylor died January 12, 1912, after
forty years of residence at Greeleyville. He mar-
ried Julia Marie DuBose, who is also deceased.
Her father was Dr. James M. DuBose of Sumter.
Samuel J. Taylor was the father of four children:
Lula T., wife of M. D. DeLong, of Charleston;
Samuel V.; Dr. E. O., who died October 23, 1918.
a practicing physician of Greeleyville, and a grad-
uate of the University of Maryland ; and Dr. W. L.,
a practicing dentist of Kingstree, South Carolina.
Samuel Vincent Taylor was born at Greelesrville
November 24, 1878. He attended the local schools
and the Furman University at Greenville, and as
a young man found employment in his father's
store. He mastered the business, assumed many
of the responsibilities of its management, and be-
fore his father's death he bought • the business
and has since conducted it as the S. V. Department
Store. This business supplies all the varied demands
for merchandise in and around Greeleyville, and
the stock is carried in a large and well equipped
building, 93 by 100 feet.
Mr. Taylor is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner,
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
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being a member of Omar Temple of the Shrine
at Charleston. He married Miss Martha Eliza-
beth Murchison of Camden. They have one son,
Samuel Vincent, Jr.
Hon. Benjamin Ryan Tillman. Probably the
most impressive tribute to the late Senator Tillman
consists in the simple fact that at the end of his
long life his old associates and admirers could speak
of him not in the exaggerated terms of partisan
hero-worship, but could depict in him real greatness
as a man and public leader with many of the frail-
ties of human nature. Error is part of struggle
and aspiration, or, as another great American ex-
pressed it, the successful man decides and executes
promptly and makes a few mistakes.
Therefore it was the supreme good fortune of
Mr. Tillman that his life story could be told with-
out qualifications or apologies, and doubtless few
biographies of South Carolina's eminent men will
better stand the test of time and criticism than
his. A good, brief outline of his career is that writ-
ten by his friend and associate Mr. J. Broadus
Knight, clerk of the United States District Court
at Greenville. With some abbreviation and modifi-
cations Mr. Knight's article as it appeared in the
"News and Courier" July 4, 1918, the day following
Senator Tillman's death, is quoted as follows:
"Benjamin Ryan Tillman, of Trenton, Edgefield
county. South Carolina, was bom August 11, 1847*
on his father's plantation about twelve miles south-
west of the present town of Edgefield. He was the
son of Benjamin Ryan Tillman and Sophia Han-
cock and was the youngest of eleven children. There
were seven boys, one of whom, Thomas F. Tillman,
was killed in the Mexican war. Another, George
D. Tillman, served as Congressman from that dis-
trict for nineteen years.
"Young Tillman s father died when he was two
and one-half years old, and he was brought up by
his mother on the plantation. He studied at home
under private tutors, one of whom was Miss Annie
Arthur, a sister of Chester A. Arthur, later presi-
dent of the United States. When he reached the
age of fourteen his mother sent him to a high school
at Liberty Hill in Edgefield county, and for three
years he studied under the famous teacher, George
Galphin. It was here that he secured the founda-
tion for an education which was later to be broad-
ened by extensive reading. He was especially*
proficient in Latin, and for years spent several
hours each day acquainting himself with works of
the old masters. In July of 1864 he quit school and
volunteered for service in the Confederate army.
While on his way to the army he was taken ill,
and as a result. of this attack lost his left eye by
an abscess and was an invalid for two years.
"He returned to his home and spent the next
twenty years, from 1866 to 1886, with the exception
of a year in Florida, reading and studying and
looking after his farming interests. Having a
retentive mind he forgot nothing practically that
he ever read.
"In 1876, while a member of a local military
company, the Sweetwater Saber Club, he took part
in the Hamburg riot just across the Savannah
River from . the city of Augusta, Georgia. In this
riot one white man and a score or more of negroes
were killed. Some two weeks later as a member
of the same club he participated in the Ellenton
riot, where many additional blacks were killed.
The negroes were in absolute control of the politics
in South Carolina, and strong measures were neces-
sary for the whites to maintain supremacy. These
riots caused a Congressional investigation by Presi-
dent Grant, but resulted in nothing.
"In 1885 Tillman began his agitation for higher
education for the boys and ^irls of the farming class
in South Carolina. It was m this year, when thirty-
eight years of age, that he faced his first audience
in the state. This speech was known as his Ben-
nettsville speech and created deep interest among
the farmers all over the country. During the next
three years he continued writing a series of letters
to the Charleston papers pleading for the farmers
to assert their rights against the politicians around
the court houses in the various counties who were
then parceling out the political offices.
"He was urged to run for Governor in 1888, but
declined. In 1890, as the result of his continued
agitation, the farmers' movement had gained such
headway and there was such a demand for him to
oflFer himself for Governor that he could not refuse.
He entered the race and after one of the most
bitter campaigns in history was overwhelmingly
elected. In 1898 he was reelected Governor.
"One of the most notable acts of his career as
Governor was the establishment of what is known
as . the primary system. Under this system the
people of South Carolina have a right to go to the
polls, and a farmer's vote counts for just as much
as that of a lawyer's or court house politician. In
this way the state was freed from ring-rule, and
the people in each county were given a voice in
naming th^ candidates for election to the various
offices. Thus was displaced the small coterie of
politicians who had heretofore met and slated their
candidates behind closed doors.
"True to his promise made on the stump, Tillman
set about to establish higher institutions of learning
for the boys and girls of the state. His efforts in
this behalf resulted in the establishment of Clemson
Agricultural and Mechanical College for boys at"
Fort Mill, Calhoun's old home in Oconee county,
and the establishment of Winthrop Normal and
Industrial College for girls at Rock Hill. Under
a system of scholarships it was made possible for
boys and girls of scant means to attend college.
"His next step was the passage of a law to cur-
tail whiskey selling. South Carolina had at that
time local option, or the old bar room system. After
months of study and thousands of miles spent in
travel in making investigations Tillman asked the
Legislature to pass what was later known as the
dispensary law. Under this act the state undertook
to manufacture and dispense alcoholic drinks to its
citizens. Many restrictions were thrown around the
sale of intoxicants, and in this way considerable
curtailment of whiskey drinking resulted. When
first established the dispensary was looked on with
great disfavor in certain sections of the state and,
under authority given him by law, Tillman appointed
detectives to hunt down violators. These came to
be known as Tillman's Spies.' At Darlington, in
1894, feeling ran so high that a riot resulted and
several citizens and constables were killed. The
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Governor promptly called out the State Militia and
the riot was quelled. Thousands of dollars were
poured into the treasury of the state in profits
derived from the dispensary. But in after years
the management of the dispensary fell into the
hands of unscrupulous and dishonest men, and the
institution was brought into disrepute. Then, too,
there was a widespread sentiment favoring prohibi-
tion sweeping the country, and the people demanded
further curtailment, which was not permissible under
the dispensary law. By many the dispensary was
regarded as a failure, but as a step toward ultimate
prohibition it must be deemed to have been a decided
success.
"In 1894, after having served the state as Gov-
ernor for four years, Tillman entered the race for
the United States Senate against Gen. M. C. Butler.
He was easily elected and went to Washington in
1895. He was opposed to the policies of President
Cleveland, and soon after entering the Senate made
what has become known as his 'pitchfork speech.'
This speech was a masterpiece and is, perhaps^ one
of the bitterest arraignments of a president ever
made in the history of this country. At the next
election the republicans came into power, and as a
member of the minority from that time until 1913
he had to content himself with watchine the repub-
licans pass what they considered by them 'necessary
legislation.' At one time during this period the
Senate consisted of ninety members, sixty of whom
were republicans. As a result the minority could
do little more than 'make them go slow,* as Tillman
said.
"Tillman's fame as an orator and stump speaker
had preceded him, and from 1896 to 1908 his services
were in great demand by managers of lecture bureaus.
He traversed the country from ocean to ocean
and visited practically every state in the Union. He
had many subjects, but probably the most famous
speech delivered on such occasions was 'The Race
Problem,' which did much toward educating the
people of the North as to the true conditions in the
South.
"In 1906, with the republicans still in control, and
while a member of the committee on interstate and
foreign commerce, the republican members of that
committee disagreed among themselves as to who
should handle an important piece of legislation on
the floor of the Senate known as the rate bill.
Rather than see one of the republican members
get the honor three or four of them joined with
the democratic members and placed Tillman in
charge. Perhaps this is the first instance in history
where a member of the minority party was given
the task of handling important majority legislation.
Few people know that Senator Tillman prepared
and had inserted in this bill what is known as the
anti-free pass amendment, but it was through his
individual efforts that this legislation was obtained.
"Soon after Senator Tillman entered the Senate
he was placed on the great committee on naval
affairs, and as a member of that committee he be-
came greatly interested in everjrthing pertaining to
the navy and its welfare. One of his greatest
efforts in the * Senate was to compel the manufac-
turers of armor plate to sell their product to the
government at a reasonable price. His exposure
of the Armor Plate Trust in 1897 saved the govern-
ment hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"In 1902, while a member of this committee, the
Senator conceived the idea of a great navy yard
on the South Atlantic coast There was a naval
station at Port Royal, South Carolina, but on ac-
count of its location, and upon the recommendation
of a board of engineers of the navy, it was decided
to place the station at Charleston. This he had
done, and that was the beginning of the present
Charleston Navy Yard. This yard is seven miles
from the ocean and has the advantagje of being out
of reach of shells from an enemy fleet in the open sea.
"After his handling of the 'rate bill' and the
notoriety that came to him as a result, Tillman's
services as a lecturer were still more in demand and
for six months, in 1907, he spoke almost daily.
This, coupled with his arduous duties in the Senate
in the winter of 1907-1908, brought about a paralytic
stroke in February of 1908. This disabled him for
several months, and in the summer of that year, with
Mrs. Tillman, he took an extended trip through
Europe. In the fall he returned in much better
physical condition and resumed his work in the
Senate. In 1910, while on a visit to his home in
Trenton, he suffered a second stroke and for sev-
eral weeks was compelled to remain at home.
"Senator Tillman possessed all the attributes of
a great man. He sprang from the common people
and devoted his life to the upbuilding of his people
and his state. He was a farmer, and his great life
work consisted principally in helping the farmers
of South Carolina and trying to give them greater
opportunities in life.
"Those with whom Senator Tillman associated
soon learned that he had the utmost contempt for
idleness. He was never idle a moment Himself, and
to see anyone around him idle seemed to make him
nervous and irritable, and he soon suggested some-
thing for the idler to do. He was industrious and
diligent, and as a result of those great characteristics
he left monuments to his name as he passed along
his long political career — monuments which will
grow greater and bigger as the years pass by. He
was honest and sincere, and has been known for
many years throughout the nation as 'Honest Ben.'
He was frank and blunt in his expressions, and
never spoke a word he did not sincerely believe to
be the truth. He was kind* and sympathetic and
never lost the opportunity to do good to his fellow
men; and he loved his own people, the farmers of
South Carolina, with a devotion which is rarely
equalled. Lastly, Senator Tillman was a brave and
courageous man, and being once convinced of the
justice of his cause, he went into the battle unafraid.
Truth and justice were his only guides."
Another source of interesting information con-
cerning Senator Tillman is Col. August Kohn, of
Columbia, who as a newspaper man began his
career when Tillman was making his first campaij?n
for governor, and was an intimate of the Senator
for nearly thirty years. In describing some of the
elements of his political strength and his public
achievement Colonel Kohn writes:
"No man in South Carolina has gone through
more heated campaigns than Senator Tillman.
There never was a more bitter or more intense
campaign than those of 1890 and 1892. Senator
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
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Tillman was a keen observer, an apt coiner, a user
of trite phrases and expressions, and had a way
of reaching his Audiences that was peculiar to him.
There has never been a public man in South Carolina
who could so effectively reach an average audience
as Tillman. I remember that in 1892, at one of
the campaign meetings, before the speaking began,
it was generally agreed that the audience was hostile
to him. He appreciated that fact and saw there
were very many in the audience who were an-
tagonistic to him, and instead of trying to placate
the crowd he proceeded to curse them out for their
indifference to him and his work, and finally, when
the returns were received he carried the county,
and the general impression was that he had won to
himself an audience that, at the beginning, was
entirely in opposition to him. One of the strong-
holds that Senator Tillman had on the people of
South Carolina, particularly in the days when he
made his county to county canvass, was the abso-
lute faith in the honesty of Ben Tillman. There
is no question about the fact that the vast majority
of people in South Carolina then, as now, believed
absolutely in the personal honesty of Senator Till-
man. That was his strength in South Carolina, and
subsequently in Washington."
Of his work while governor and United States
Senator Colonel Kohn writes:
**Of course the dispensary will always be one oi
the big facts to be credited or charged to Senator
Tillman. His real reasons for advocating the dis-
pensary were, first, to abolish the bar rooms, and,
second, to save the state from prohibition. At the
time that the dispensaries were inaugurated tliere
is no question to the fact that Senator Tillman was
opposed to prohibition. He sincerely believed that
the dispensary was a great system and if it had
been honestly conducted would have been the best
solution of the problem. Later on he stated that
the dispensary had brought South Carolina nearer
to prohibition by showing that the liquor question
could be handled.
"But it is going to take a great deal of space to
fo into all of these matters. Senator Tillman in his
nal message to the General Assembly recounted his
achievements in this summary: ist: The erection
and endowment of Clemson College. 2d: The
overthrow of the Coosaw monopoly. 3d: The just
and suitable assessment of taxes on railroads and
other corporations and the victory of the courts
compelling them to pay. 4th: The passage of the
dispensary law and the destruction of the bar rooms.
5th : Refunding of the state debt, which saves
seventy-eight thousand a year in interest. 6th: The
establishment of Winthrop Normal and Industrial
College for Women. 7th: Election of the railroad
commissioners by the people, and allowing them to
fix passenger and freight rates. 8th: The in-
auguration of the primary system of party nomina-
tions for all offices in the gift of the people.
"In his career as United States Senator he laid
claim to the constitutional convention held in South
Carolina in 1895; to the Charleston Navy Yard, to
the enlargement of the navy, to the handling of
the armor plate by the Government, to Camp Jack-
son at Columbia, the placing of South Carolina in
its proper light before the country, and other
matters."
In 1868, when twenty years of -age, Mr. Tillman
married Miss Sallie Starke, of Elbert County,
Georgia. To this union were bom six children,
including: Benjamin Ryan Tillman, Jr., Capt. Henry
C. Tillman, Melona, who married Charles S. Moore,
a lawyer of Atlantic City, New Jersey ; Miss Sophia,
who married Henry Hughes ; Sallie May, who mar-
ried John Shuler.
Colonel Kohn describes some of his early visits
to the Tillman home, when Mr. Tillman was gov-
ernor. "He always showed the greatest affection
for his family, and there has never been a whisper
or unkind word about his family life. He and
Mrs. Tillman were married in 1868, have always
been the most devoted of companions, and she was
the one person in the world who had final influence
over him. Whatever Mrs. Tillman said was final
with him, and it was really beautiful to see the
utter devotion of Senator Tillman to his wife and
children. One of the sorest afflictions of his married
life was the killing of his eldest daughter, Addle,
by lightning."
Colonel Kohn also has this interesting paragraph
concerning his literary gifts and output: "Some
day someone will collect, and perhaps publish, some
of the very excellent things that Senator Tillman
has left in writing, and they will show what a
master of language he was. There are a large
number of pamphlets containing addresses and
speeches prepared by Tillman, but perhaps the best
of these are his speeches made at the constitutional
convention on the suffrage question, and why South
Carolina, in his opinion, had to restrict the ballot;
then his speech on 'Massachusetts and South Caro-
lina in the Revolution,' delivered in the United
States Senate on Thursday, January 30, 1902; his
address delivered at the Red Shirt reunion in An-
derson in August, 1905, describing the struggles of
the people of Edgefield county in 1876; his speech
in the United States Senate in 1907, on the race
problem, brought about by the Brownsville raid;
his speech in the United States Senate in 1903. on
Trusts and Monopolies'; his speech on Bimetallism
and Industrial Slavery, in 1896, and his eulogy on
Senator Earle. In this connection it is well to
note that his messages as Governor of South Caro-
lina are very illuminating as to the conditions that
existed at that time. He always wrote forcefully,
and up to the day when he was stricken in his last
illness, so acute was his mind that he dictated with
hb well recognized terseness and virility and kept
several stenographers on the *jump* keeping up with
his correspondence."
Benjamin R. Tillman for many years was closely
associated with his honored father, the late Senator
Tillman, as his principal aide and office manager
during the Senator's long political career at Wash-
ington. For twenty years he was continuously with
his father as chief secretary and in other capacities.
His last years in Washington were spent as clerk
.of the Naval Affairs Committee of the Senate, the
committee of which his father was chairman. Since
the death of Senator Tillman the son has resumed
his residence on the Tillman plantation at Trenton.
Mr. Tillman was born in 1878, at the old Tillman
home place, ten miles from the plantation where
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Senator Tillman lived for so many years. This is
in Edgefield County on the Augusta-Abbeville road.
Benjamin R. Tillman now has charge of the Tillman
plantation and estate near Trenton. He is a gradu-
ate of Clemson College with the class of 1896. He
studied law at Georgetown College, but never prac-
ticed that profession. While so much of his time
was spent with his father in politics and public
affairs, Mr. Tillman has a comprehensive knowledge
and keen enthusiasm for scientific agriculture, which
was one of the hobbies of his honored father. The
Tillman plantation, while always emphasizing the
cotton crop, has been particularly famous as the
first home of the commercial asparagus industry of
South Carolina. The growing of asparagus on a
commercial scale is one of the achievements prop-
erly credited to Senator Tillman, but frequently
omitted from the long list of his achievements.
Under the management of the son the Tillman
plantation supplies a considerable part of the aspara-
gus sent from Trenton to the northern markets.
Mr. Tillman' is a Shriner, being a member of
Hijiz Temple of Greenville. South Carolina, a
member of the Episcopal Church.
Hon. David William Gaston, Jr. The name
Gaston has been one of the most prominent in the
South since early colonial times. Originally settled
in Virginia, the Gastons in a later generation estab-
lished their home in Aiken County, South Carolina.
The great-grandfather of David William Gaston,
Jr., had seven brothers, and from them have de-
scended many branches of the family, including
prominent citizens not only of South Carolina but
of states further west, especially of Alabama and
Texas.
In his own generation David William Gaston,
ir., has justified the honorable family traditions in
is work as a lawyer and business man. He was
born at Aiken, April 29, 1889, and is a son of David
W. and Allie (Weathersby) Gaston. His father
is one of the wealthjr and representative citizens of
Aiken, is an extensive planter and is president of
the First National Bank of Aiken.
The son graduated from the Aiken Institute in
1906, from The Citadel at Charleston in 1910, and
received his law degree from the University of
South Carolina in 1912. Since then he has steadily
gained increasing reputation as a lawyer at Aiken,
and has a large and busy practice. Besides his pro-
fessional work he is a planter and gives his super-
vision to the conduct of three excellent farms in
Aiken County.
He was elected a member of the Lower House
of the General Assembly in 1918 to represent Aiken
County. During the following session he was a
member of the committees on banking and insur-
ance, accounts, incorporations and privileges and
elections.
In 1913 Mr. Gaston married Miss Belle Glover,
of Graniteville, South Carolina. They have three
children, two daughters, Katharine and Emma, and
a son, David William Gaston, third, born May 8,
1920.
Capt. Charles Wesley Muldrow. member of the
law firm of Arrowsmith, Muldrow, Bridges & Hicks
of Florence, twke gave up his promising position
as a young lawyer to respond to the call of patri-
otic duty, at first on the Mexican border and then
to go overseas and fi^^t in France. He is an
able lawyer as well as a splendid soldier.
He was born at Florence, June 17, 1886, son of
Tames F. and Emma Lee (Hudgins) Muldrow.
Captain Muldrow has acquired a very liberal edu-
cation from different sources. He attended the
graded schools at Florence, the South Carolina
Citadel at Charleston, and the Law School of the
University of South Carolina at Columbia and also
the Council of Legal Education (Inns of Court)
at London, England.
Early in his career as a lawyer he was elected
and served as a member of the House of Repre-
sentatives of South Carolina in 191 5-16. Having
been educated in a military school, he organized
Company K of the Second South Carolina Infan-
try, and was commissioned its captain June 19,
1916, was inducted into the Federal servkre July 4th,
and shortly after that date until about March 20,
191 7, was on duty along the Mexican border at
El Paso, Texas.
Then followed a brief interval when he resumed
his law practice, but on July 25, 191 7, answered
the call of the President and was assigned to the
One Hundred and Twentieth Infantry at Camp
Sevier. He was transferred to the One Hundred
and Fifth Ammunition Train as adjutant of a Motor
Battalion April 19, 1918, and left Camp Sevier for
overseas duty Ma^ 21st of that year. He was with
the Fifty-fifth Field Artillery Brigade throughout
the active service of that organization. March i,
1919, he was ordered to England on detached serv-
ice from Le Mans, Frabce, and returned to the
United States July 18, 191 9, and was discharged at
Camp Dix, New Jersey, July 26th.
Since he returned to his home state he was ap-
pointed August 5, 1910, a lieutenant colonel on tlic
staff of Governor R. A. Cooper.
Captain Muldrow, whose home is at Florence, is
unmarried. He is a Knight Templar and Scottish
Rite Mason, is affiliated with Omar Temple of the
Mystic Shrine, and is a member of Charleston Lodge
No. 242 of the Elks, Gate City Council No. 105,
Junior Order United American Mechanics and Wal-
nut Camp No. 52, Woodmen of the World.
Robert L. Gunter recently rounded out ten years
of consecutive service as solicitor of the Second
Judicial Circuit. As a lawyer his name has been
recognized as representing all the ablest qualities
of the profession in Aiken County for the past
twenty years.
Mr. Gunter also represents an old and prominent
family in the state. The Gunters came to South
Carolina from Virginia prior to the Revolution.
One of the name was killed during the war for
independence. In subsequent generations the name
has become known also in the states of Georgia.
Alabama and Texas, and in those localities is asso-
ciated with men of wealth and prominence.
Richard Gunter was grandfather of Robert L. The
latter was born in 1869, in that part of Lexington
County now included in Aiken County and is a son
of M. T. and Tabitha (Sawyer) Gunter. His father
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
105
was a Confederate soldier and was first lieutenant
of Company I, Twentieth Regiment South Caro-
lina Volunteers. He was wounded in the Valley
of Virginia near the Berorville Turnpike, while
leading his company. He served in the Legislature
for two terms. R. L. Gunter's mother's father was
George Sawyer, a prominent citizen of Edgefield
District, of the section now known as the "Ridge
Section." Her mother was a Lovelace of the same
section and at one time represented Aiken County
in the Legislature.
Robert L. Gunter acquired his high school educa-
tion at Leesville, attended Newberry College, and
graduated in 1892. He studied law one year in the
University of Michigan and one year in the Uni-
versity of South Carolina, graduated from the lat-
ter institution in 1895. He was admitted to the bar
in 1895 and began practice the same year. He also
had the special honor and responsibility of being a
delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1895.
He was one of the youngest members of that body,
but his youth was no bar to effective counsel and
much hard work in formulating the new organic
law of the state.
Mr. Gunter has had his home at Aiken since 1900,
and he developed a large general practice. In 1910
he was elected solicitor of the 'Second Judicial Cir-
cuit, and his tenure of that office has been made
continuous by reelection based on the high quality
of the service which he has rendered. His circuit
embraces Aiken, Barnwell, Bamberg and Allendale
counties. Mr. Gunter was also a member of the
Legislature in 1901-02. He has been more or less
identified with the politics of his county and state
since 1895.
During the war he was especially active in behalf
of Liberty Loan and Red Cross drives. He is a
member of the Masonic order and the Lutheran
Church. He married Miss Lula P. Jackson, of
Aiken County, in 1898.
Hon. Joseph Andrew Berry, of Orangeburg,
lawyer and present speaker pro tempore of the
House of Representatives, has among other distinc-
tions the unique one of being the youngest grandson
of a Revolutionary soldier in America.
His grandfather and Revolutionary patriot was
James Beery, who was born in County Cork, Ire-
land, about 1736. It is probable that the original
spelling of the name in Ireland was Barry. With
his young wife and child James Berry came to
America about ' 1758, locating in the Orangeburg
district. He was a weaver by trade, and a century
or more ago he wove dress goods and other clothes
on hand looms, most of his output being used for
ladies' apparel. James Berry was about forty years
of age when the colonies revolted and began their
strugjBrle for independence. He joined with the
Carohna patriots in that struggle and fought gal-
lantly as a soldier. James Berry rounded out almost
a century of life, dying in the thirties. The wife
he brought with him from Ireland died, and in the
Orangeburg district he married a second time.
By his second wife he was the father of James
Brewton Berry, who was born near Branchville in
1806 and died near there in 1888. James Brewton
Berry was a man of prominence in his community
and helped in the building of the old Charleston
and Hamburg Railroad, one of the first railroads
built in America, and now a part of the Southern
Railway system. He was also twice married. Sallie
Street, of St. George, South Carolina, the mother of
Joseph A. Berry, being his second wife.
Joseph Andrew Berry was born at Branchville
in Orangeburg County, June i, 1876, his birth oc-
curring about a hundred and forty years after the
birth of his grandfather and just a century after
the Declaration of Independence, which the soldier
service of his grandfather helped to make valid.
The vicinity of Branchville is the ancestral home
of the Berry family, and there Joseph A. Berry spent
his early life. His mother died when he was eight
years of age, and his aged father died four years
later. He was then without anyone to give him
parental attention, and the rest of his boyhood days
were very hard and entirely without any promise.
However, he had attended local schools pretty regu-
larly up to the time of his father's death and there-
after whenever it was possible for him to do so.
His education was very limited. He did not have
the opportunity to attend even a high school, but
in 1897 he entered the law offices of Glaze & Herbert
at Orangeburg for the purpose of reading law, ai^d
was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court m
May, 1898. This was just at the outbreak of the
Spanish-American war. He immediately volun-
teered for service with the Edisto Rifles of Orange-
burg, under command of Capt. D. O. Herbert.
With the muster into service of his company as a
part of the Independent Battalion he was appointed
a corporal, and when the Second South Carolina
regiment of infantrjr was organized under the com-
mand of Col. Wilie Jones he was transferred to
Company K and appointed first sergeant, with which
command he was mustered out of the service in
Augusta, Georgia, on April 19. 1899, after almost a
year's service, a part of which was spent in Cuba.
After the Spanish -American war he re-enlisted in
the Edisto Rifles, served as a lieutenant and for
several years as captain of this company in the
South Carolina National Guard. Subsequently he
was major on the staff of Gen. Wilie Jones.
Mr. Berry has resided and practiced his profes-
sion in Orangeburg since 1900, with William C.
Wolfe, his law partner, under the firm name of
Wolfe & Berry, with a splendid degree of success.
He is a member of the State Bar Association and
has been honored with the position of first vice
president. He served as secretary and treasurer of
the Orangeburg County Democratic Executive Com-
mittee from 1904 to 1918, and has been the member
of the State Democratic Executive Committee for
Orangeburg County since 1914. He was elected to
represent Orangeburg County in the House of Rep-
resentatives in 1914, and his service has been made
continuous by subsequent elections. In 1917 he was
chosen speaker pro tempore and was similarly hon-
ored by his colleagues in the House in 1919. He is
also chairman of the judiciary committee and the
chairman of the committee on rules; a member of
the state canal commission, and the special com-
mittee of the Legislature appointed to revise the
tax laws of the state. In the Legislature he has
displayed ability of leadership, force as a debater.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
and delivered some of the best speeches heard in
the House of Representatives since he became a
member. Conspicuous among his speeches may be
mentioned those made by him in behalf of the estab-
lishment of a state highway commission, a state
budget law, the institution and retention of the state
tax commission, the building of a larger Citadel and
a bill to repeal the law prohibiting Greek letter
fraternities in state institutions. The judiciary
committee at the close of the 1920 session presented
him with a magnificent gold watch in appreciation
of his services.
Mr. Berry missed an education himself, but he is
a strong advocate of the subject and has urged it in
many a schoolhouse in his county. He has also
supported with enthusiasm the establishment and
growth of the Dixie Library in Orangeburg and is
a life member of the organization. During the
World war he was county chairman of the War
Savings Stamp campaigns, and was on duty as a
speaker with nearly every patriotic drive made in
the county. Mr. Berry is a member of the Metho-
dist Church, is a past chancellor of the Knights of
Pythias, past exalted ruler of the Elks and also a
member of the Masonic order.
October 10, 1900, he married Miss Fannie Pike,
of Orangeburg. Their three children arc James
Brewton, Richard Pike and Joseph Andrew.
Clarence J. Fickling, the active president and
manager of the Commercial Bank of Blackville, is
a member of an old and honored Barnwell County
family, and was a successful farmer in this locality
before he became a banker.
Mr. Fickling was born in Barnwell County, De-
cember 30, 1881. Four brothers named Fickling
came out of England and were settlers in the
southern states prior to the Revolutionary war,
taking part in that struggle. His great-grandfather
was Rev. William Fickling, a Baptist minister, who
was active in the organization of the Blackville
Baptist Church in 1846, and for many years carried
on the work of the ministry in the southwestern
portions of South Carolina. The grandfather of the
Blackville banker was Henry S. Fickling and the
father, F. G. Fickling, both natives of Barnwell
County. The latter is still active as a farmer. He
married Emma J. Hair, daughter of J. Pinckney and
Mary E. (Owens) Hair, both of whom were also
natives of South Carolina.
Henry S. Fickling, subject's grandfather, served
as a soldier in the Confederate army, and was in
active service throughout the entire war.
Clarence J. Ficklmg was second in a family of
three sons. He was reared and educated in Barn-
well County, finishing his education in Clemson
College. After his college course he returned to
the farm and was interested in agricultural matters
for several years. He still owns some valuable
and extensive planting interests in the county. From
1909 to 1912 he served as cashier of the Bank of
Western Carolina, and in February, 19 17, was in-
strumental in organizing; the Commercial Bank of
Blackville. Since its organization he has served
as vice president and manager and is now president
and manager.
October 30, 1902, he married Miss Maude G.
Hair, a daughter of James Marshall Hair, of Willis-
ton, South Carolina. Mrs. Fielding's sister is a
member of the Daughters of the American Revolu-
tion. Her father served in the Confederate army,
was wounded and left for dead on the field. He was
hit in the right temple by a Minnie ball, which cut
his right optic nerve and took out a molar on the
left side of his jaw. Life was discovered in him
the next morning, and he was taken and cared for.
After the war he married and raised a large family.
He moved to Williston, South Carolina, where he
followed the business of planting until his death at
the age of seventy-one, in 191 1. Mr. and Mrs.
Fickling have four living children: Sarah, Edina
Bell, Sophia and Robert Bruce. Mr. Fickling is
affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, and is a
prominent member of the Blackville Baptist Church,
having served as deacon and treasurer for the past
ten years. He has been an active factor in the
practical matters of the town, and served two years,
1918-19, as mayor. He is a member of the County
Board of Education, 1919-1920.
Charles Auseuus Smitb. While he came
Timmonsville a young college graduate with no
special recommendation and without capital, the late
Charles Aurelius Smith long before his death was
one of the foremost men in business, banking and
citizenship in that community. He ran for governor
of South Carolina, in 1914 and served his state as
lieutenant governor for four years.
Mr. Smith who died March 3h 19^6, was born
in North Carolina January 22, i8oij son of Joseph
Smith, and of an old North Carolma family. He
lived his early life on his father's farm, attended the
rural schools, but for his higher education had to
resort to dose economy of his resources and even
to borrow money to complete his education in Wake
Forest College. He prepared for college in the Rey-
noldson Male Institute in Gates County, North
Carolina. On borrowed money he entered Wake
Forest College in 1879 and by good use of his time
and opportunities earned his A. B. degree in 1882.
He at once began teaching school in order to pay
off his debt, and it was school work that brought him
to Timmonsville, South Carolina. From school
work he* soon entered on a business career, and the
energy and good judgment with which he prosecuted
every enterprise brought him to the head of many
of the leading companies in Florence County. He
was president of the Citizens Bank of Timmons-
ville, president of the Timmonsville Oil Company,
president of the Charles A. Smith Com^y, general
merchandise, president of the Smith-Williams Com-
pany of Lake City, and was also organizer and
president of the Bank of Lynchburg, South Carolina.
He was a democrat in politics and held the office of
mayor of Timmonsville for several years beginning
in 1903.
The late Mr. Smith was one of the most prominent
Baptist laymen in South Carolina. He was chosen
president of the Baptist State Convention in 1903,
was made vice president of the Southern Baptist
Convention in 1905, and for a number of years was
also moderator of the Welsh Neck Baptist Associa-
tion. He was president of the Board of Trustees
of Furman University, trustee of Greenville Female
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107
College, and a trustee of Welsh Neck High School.
As a man he was quiet and unobtrusive in spite
of the energy with which he directed his affairs,
and his career throughout was one of high service.
January 3, 1884, he married Fanny L. Byrd.
They were the parents of nine children.
C. Ray Smith, who has succeeded his father
as head of the Citizens Bank of Timmonsville, was
born in that town July 29, 1889. He was educated
in the local public schools and in 1906 took his
A. B. degree from his father's alma mater, Wake
Forest College in North Carolina. For two years
he was assistant cashier of the Citizens Bank, was
manager of the Charles A. Smith Company, and
upon the death of his father became president of
this company, president of the Citizens Bank, vice
president of the Smith- Williams Company of Lake
City, and a director of the Timmonsville Oil Mill.
He is also active in Baptist affairs, is trustee of
Coker College and superintendent of a Sunday
school. November 25, 1915, he married Miss Hallie
Garrison of Camden, South Carolina. They have
one daughter, Margaret Carrison.
Another son of Charles A. Smith is Charles Lucien
Smith. He attended the Hartsville High School
and for two years was a student in Furman Univer-
sity. He began his business career as assistant
manager in the Charles A. Smith Company at Tim-
monsville and is. now vice president and manager
and a director of the National Bank of Lamar. He
married Ruby Lowman of Timmonsville. They have
two children, Frances Myers and Jane Lowman.
Thomas Lowndes Wragg, who is manager of the
Western Carolina Bank at Blackville, has had an
active business career of more than a quarter of a
century. Most of his life has been spent in other
states, but he belongs to one of the old colonial
families of Charleston, where the Wraggs settled
about 1700.
They are of English ancestry, and all accounts
show that in South Carolina they have been a family
of substantial means and exceptional social position
and character. During the earlier generations the
intermarriages were practically restricted to persons
of the same section, and the first arrivals inter-
married at once with members of the French
Huguenot colony.
The first immigrants to South Carolina of tlie
Wragg family were two brothers, Samuel and
Joseph Wragg. While the exact date of their com-
ing has been lost, there is an interesting historical
record concerning Samuel Wragg, who on the 6th
of March, 1710-11, delivered to the council a letter
from the Lords Proprietors. In 1712 he was a
member of the Provincial House of Commons and
in 1717 was a member of the council.
In 171 8, while outward bound from Charleston
to England, his vessel was overtaken by the pirate
"Blackbeard" just oflf the Charleston bar, and he
was despoiled of a large amount of specie, threat-
ened with death, subjected to many hardships and
humiliations before being released and allowed with
his young son, William, to return to Charleston.
When the province was transferred to the Crown,
Samuel Wragg was a member of the council, as
was later his brother Joseph. These brothers were
merchants in Charleston, as they had apparently
been in London, probably in connection with their
uncle, William Wragg, who seems to have been a
wealthy merchant of London. Family tradition
makes the two brothers sons of a Mr. John Wragg
of Chesterfield, Derbyshire. On coming to the
province they were well provided with capital, and
their means must have been substantially increased,
since they ranked among the wealthy citizens of the
Carolinas, and when they died both left large for-
tunes for that period. The brothers married sisters,
daughters of Jacques du Bosc, a French Huguenot
immigrant who became a merchant at Charleston.
Samuel Wragg purchased and settled the Ashley
Barony on Ashley River. William Wragg, who was
the son captured by Blackbeard, achieved rank as
a man of ability, fortune and the highest character.
He declined from delicacy and disinterestedness the
position of chief justice of the colony, though he
served as a member of the council. In 1777. for
his loyalty to the Crown, he suffered expulsion from
his native land and on his voyage to England was
drowned off the coast of Holland. According to
the writer, Henry A. M. Smith, he was the only
native born South Carolinian to whom a memorial
exists in Westminster Abbey.
On a chart published in the July, 1918, issue of
the "South Carolina Historical and Genealogical
Magazine," the authority for the Wragg descent
prior to the two brothers who came to South Caro-
lina is largely traditional from a manuscript made
by the late William Wragg Smith for Henry A.
Middleton. The connection between the brothers
and their uncle, William Wragg, and the latter's
children is from records in this country and other
old records and are the data for the later descent.
The chart is as accurate as possible.
The oldest example of the Wragg coat of arms
is an old piece of silver, the hall mark of which is
about 1731. This came down to the descendants of
Joseph Wragg, and is described "Or, a fesse azure,
a canton azure charged with a fleur de lys." In
books apparently owned by Mrs. Milward Poyson,
a daughter of Hon. William Wragg, is a book plate
showing a coat of arms with crest and motto above
the name "William Wragg," but it is not apparent
whether it was the Hon. William Wragg who died
in 1777 or his son William who died in 1802. One
volume in which the book plate is printed was pub-
lished in 1801 and the other. in 1803. The son may
have used the book plate of his father. On this
plate the canton is argent, likely a mistake, since
by heraldic laws one metal argent should not be
charged on another metal, so this canton should
likely be azure as on the old piece of silver. On
this book plate the crest is a demi-eagle with open
wings, the motto "Est Ulubris."
Incidentally it should be noted that Mary Ashby,
daughter of Shukhrugh Ashby of Quenby, England,
married Rev. William Breckwith Wragge, vicar of
Frisbv. while in this country Samuel Wragg mar-
ried Mary Ashbv I'On. a descendant of John Ashby
of Quenby in South Carolina, a collateral branch
of Ashby of Quenby, England.
Considering now the immediate ' ancestry of
Thomas Lowndes Wragg, his great-grandfather,
Samuel Wragg, and his grandfather. Dr. John Asby
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Wragg, were both natives of Charleston. His
grandfather practiced medicine for many years at
Savannah, Georgia. The father of the Blackville
banker, Thomas Wragg, was born at Savannah, and
also earned a high position in the medical protes-
sion. He married Joseph L. Cooper, a native of
Florida, her parents being natives of Georgia.
Thomas Lowndes Wragg, who was the second in
a family of three children, was born at ThomasvtUe.
Georgia, April 15, 1872, and was reared and edu-
cated in Florida. At the age of eighteen he began
his active career as a bookkeeper in St. Louis,
Missouri. He was in that city nine years, spent
three years in Charleston, and for five years was
in the general offices of the Southern Railway at
Washington. Mr. Wragg came to Blackville, South
Carolina, in 1906, as cashier of the Bank of Black-
ville. Upon the merging of this with the Bank of
Western Carolina he accepted the increased re-
sponsibilities of manager of the bank.
Mr. Wragg is a member of the Episcopal Church
and is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity aiid
Woodmen of the World. In 1905 he married Miss
Sevena Andrews, a daughter of John Andrews of
Orangeburg. They have two children, Dorothy and
Helen.
William Elliott Spann. Those who note the
notable figures in Bamberg County agriculture have
no hesitation in pronouncing William Elliott Spann
one of the most enterprising factors and one of the
ablest cotton growers in the state. It is said that
Mr. Spann had only seventy-five cents to his name
when he came to Bamberg County, and he has used
his opportunities and abilities so wisely as to ac-
cumulate a large plantation and has been one of the
premier cotton growers of the county for a number
of years.
He was born near Leesville in Lexington County,
South Carolina, November 29, 1859. His grand-
father was Henry Spann, a native of South Carolina, ,
and one of the early circuit rider Methodist preach-
ers of the state. His father was Philip C. Spann,
who served as a Confederate soldier during the war
and otherwise spent his time as a farmer. He
married Jane Steadman, of Lexington County.
William Elliott Spann is the oldest of a family
of nine children, all of whom are still living. He
grew up on a farm and was twenty-two years of
age when he came to *that portion of old Barnwell
County now Bamberg County. He soon distin-
guished himself by his ability to make a farm pro-
duce maximum crops of cotton and grain, and has
greatly extended his possessions until he now has
about 1,200 acres, mostly all of which is devoted
to cotton, corn and tobacco. In several different
years he has gathered 350 bales of cotton from 350
acres of land. Mr. Spann is a leader in agriculture,
has considerable interests in local banks, and is
known to have invested a large sum in Liberty
bonds.
He married Miss Minnie Hutto, now deceased,
and she was the mother of three children, Elliott
Leland, Eva May and Blanche; Mrs. Spann came
from one of the old South Carolina families.
The Spanns are an old South Carolina family
and besides his father, the subject had three uncles
in the Confederate army, one of whom lost his
life in one of the engagements. The family is of
old Revolutionary stock and of English descent At
an early age William E. Spann had to start in to
make his own way, as the war had destroyed the
wealth of the Spann family. He is a member of
the Knights of Pythias fraternity.
Albert Perry Manville is an honored veteran of
the Confederate war, and for nearly half a century,
from the close of the war until he retired, was one
of the leading, merchants of Barnwell.
Mr. Manville is of northern birth and ancestry.
He was born in Milford, Connecticut, March 13,
1839. His grandfather, .Uri D. Manville, was of
French ancestry and was also a native of Milford,
Connecticut. His father, Pernett Perry Manville,
a native of Milford, was a carpenter by occupation.
When Albert Perry was a small child the father
came south to follow his trade in Florida and later
located at Thomasville, Georgia. While there he
was injured during his work and took up mer-
chandising. In 1849 he went west to California,
around the Horn, and died in that state. His wife
was Harriet Buckingham, a native of Connecticut
and of English ancestry.
Albert Perry Manville was the oldest of six chil-
dren. He spent his boyhood days at Thomasville,
Georgia, and at the age of twelve ^ears came to live
with his uncle, J. C. Buckingham, in Barnwell, South
Carolina. His mother returned north to Connecticut
He worked at the tailor's trade, and was thus em-
ployed when the war broke out. He was one of the
first to enlist in Captain Brown's company, and he
heard the first guns in the war at Fort Sumter and
the last fighting just before the surrender at Ap-
pomattox. He was in Company C of Kershaw's
Second Regiment until after the battle of Fred-
ericksburg, when he became a member of Company
E, Colonel Hagood's First Regiment, being made
orderly sergeant. He was wounded in the left arm
at Savage Station on the York River Railroad, and
after a period in hospital was granted a furlough
of sixty days. He then rejoined his command and
was transferred to Captain Wood's Company E,
and continued with that gallant regiment of South
Carolina troops until the close of the war. During
the reconstruction days he took his part as a good
citizen in putting down the radical rule.
He was treasurer of the democratic party during
reconstruction days, and it is a known fact that
Barnwell County was the best organized county in
the state.
The war over he returned to Barnwell and en-
gaged in merchandising, a business he followed until
he retired. On March 27, 1867, Mr. Manville mar-
ried Miss Alice Hart, daughter of Rev. Allen Hart,
a Baptist minister, and granddaughter of John Hart.
Both her father and grandfather were natives of
South Carolina. Mrs. Manville was the second in
a family of five children, and was reared and edu-
cated at Barnwell. To Mr. and Mrs. Manville were
born seven children, and the two now living are
Hattie B. and George W. Mr. Manville also has
a grandson, Daniel P. Hartley, now fifteen years
of age. Their son George is cashier of the Western
Carolina Bank of Barnwell. Mr. and Mrs. Man-
ville are active members of the Baptist Church.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
109
The members of this church helped them celebrate
their golden or fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1917.
Thomas Gordon McLeod. In his home county
of Lee Thomas Gordon McLeod long ago estab-
l^hed his prestige as an able and learned member
of the bar. His services have not been within the
strict limits of his profession, however, and again
and again he has been called upon to act in posi-
tions of trust and responsibility involving large and
important issues. For four years he was lieutenant
governor of the state, has been a member of both
houses of the Legislature, and in all his record
there has been nothing to detract justly from his
reputation as a lawyer, an upright gentleman and a
forward-looking citizen.
He was born at Lynchburg, Sumter County, South
Carolina, December 17, 1868, and is descended from
James McLeod, a Scotchman, who came to the
Carolinas before the Revolutionary war. His father
William James McLeod was a merchant and farmer,
and served as captain of Company E of the Sixth
South Carolina Regiment throughout the war be-
tween the states. He married Miss Amanda Rogers,
whose father William Rogers was of New England
stock and came to the Carolinas from Connecticut
in 1835.
Thomas G. McLeod once wrote in regard to his
parentage, inheritance and early influences the fol-
lowing words: "My parents were both devoted
Christians and the home influences were of the
best. My mother died when I was but ten years
of age; but her place was taken by my step-mother,
and to her training and influence I am as much in-
debted for whatever success I have attained as I am
to any other influence in my life. My early experi-
ence in my father's country store brought me in
contact with all classes of people ; and the knowledge
there gained of human nature and the friendly
meeting with people of all kinds and classes, appears
to have been to me the most useful part of my
life training and the foundation certainly of what-
ever success I have attained in public life."
Besides the incidents and experience thus noted
Mr. McLeod also came in contact with the practical
work of the South Carolina farm and is strictly
speaking country bred, though most of his boy-
hood was spent in the Village of Ljmchburg. He
attended private schools and in 1892 finished the
classical course and was awarded the A. B. degree
by Wofford College. He also took a summer course
in law at the University of Virginia. For a year
he taught at Bethel Academy and another year at
Line Academy and in 1896 was admitted to the bar.
He soon returned home to take charge of the family
business affairs during the last illness of his father
and was thus engaged until 1903, when he removed
to Bishopville and began the practice at law about
the same time that Lee County was created.
For fully twenty years he has been regarded
as a leader in the public life of his community. He
was elected to represent Sumter County in the Legis-
lature until 1901. In 1902 he was chosen the first
senator from Lee County, and was a delegate to
the National Democratic Convention of 1904. He
was elected lieutenant governor without opposition
in 1906 and 1908.
Mr. McLeod is possessed of a magnetic personal-
ity and has many of the qualifications of the true
orator. He was one of the most eflPective platform
speakers in every cause and movement related to
the prosecution of the World war, speaking in be-
half of Liberty Loans, Red Cross and other drives.
He was appointed chairman of the local exemption
board of Lee County and for nearly two years pa-
triotic work had priority over all his private interests.
Mr. McLeod has extensive farm interests. He is
attorney for and director of the Bishopville National
Bank, is president of the Bishopville Telephone Com-
pany and was formerly president of the W. J. Mc-
Leod Company. Recently he was appointed a mem-
ber of the State Central Committee for the purpose
of reducing the cotton acreage. For years he has
been a working member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church South and as district director he spent much
time in the movement for raising funds for the
Methodbt Church. In 1916 he was appointed a
trustee of Winthrop College and is still on the
board. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masons,
Knights of P)rthias and Woodmen of the World
and is a member of the Kappa Alpha College
fraternity.
December 31, 1902, he married Miss Elizabeth
Alford, daughter of W. McD. and Sarah E. Al-
ford of Marion County. Mr. and Mrs. McLeod
have four children: Alford McD.; Thomas G.;
Lucy Wood and Yancey Alford.
George Alexander Jennings, the present county
treasurer of Bamberg County, is an honored resi-
dent of that locality and a man who for his ad-
vancement in the world has depended almost en-
tirely upon the virtues of hard work and an honest
and straightforward character.
Mr. Jennings was born in Orangeburg County
January 22, 1854. Three months after his birth
his father, George Jennings, was accidentally killed.
George Jennings was a farmer and a son of John
Jennings, a native of Orangeburg County. This
branch of the Jennings family was established in
South Carolina, coming from England, about 1737.
The mother of George Alexander Jennings was
Harriet L. Moody, who was born in Orangeburg
County, a daughter of John Moody. She was the
mother of five children, George Alexander being
the youngest.
The latter lived on a farm in Bamberg County
from the age of thirteen and had a common school
education, supplemented by advanced training in a
military academy at Charlotte, North Carolina, and
at Porter Military Academy at Charleston. After
completing his education he held positions as book-
keeper for such prominent men as Col. John F. Folk,
Rice Coplin, H. C. Folk and General Bamberg. He
was with General Bamberg at the time of the lat-
ter's death. After that for some years Mr. Jen-
nings represented the Simmons Hardware Com-
pany until he was elected county treasurer of Bam-
berg County in 1912. He has had no opposition
for that office and has given a faithful and efficient
admmistration of its affairs. Mr. Jennings has been
active politically and for several terms was secre-
tary of the County Democratic Club. He was a
member of the city council for two terms. He is
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
and fraternally is affiliated with the Knights of
Pythias.
November 22, 1876. Mr. Jennings married Miss
Julia Slater, a native of Bamberg County, and
daughter of John D. Slater. The Slaters arc an
old South Carolina family of Revolutionary stock
and English descent. Mrs. Jennings is a niece of
Gen. F. M. Bamberg, whose sketch appears else-
where in this work. Mrs. Bamberg is the elder
sister of Mr. G. A. Jennings. Mrs. Jennings is an
aunt of the Slater brothers of Orangeburg.
Mr. and Mrs. Jennings have two children: AUie
Aleen, wife of A. M. Denbow, of Bamberg, presi-
dent of the Peoples Bank; and John S., of St
George, South Carolina.
AsBURY Lawton Kirkland. While for the past
several years he has been the esteemed and efficient
clerk of courts of Bamberg County, Asbury Law-
ton Kirkland is primarily a farmer and planter, a
business to which he has given his best years smce
leaving college.
He was born in Bamberg County, August 31, io74.
He is a great-grandson of William Kirkland, a
soldier of tiie American Revolution, and who lost
an arm in that struggle. He was born in Scotland.
The grandfather was Reuben Kirkland, a native of
Edgefield County, South Carolina. ' His father is
Dr. N. F. Kirkland, a native of what is now Bam-
berg County, and still living in his eighty-ninth
year. For many years he practiced medicine and
became a physician of wide repute and success m
what is now Bamberg County. Doctor Kirkland
married Jennie M. Lawton, a native of Hampton
County, daughter of Joseph M. Lawton, of the same
county. The Lawton family was also established
in South Carolina prior to the Revolution.
Asbury Lawton Kirkland, the youngest of a fam-
ily of five sons and one daughter, was reared and
educated in his home county, attended common
schools and spent one year in Wofford College.
He took up planting, and now operates about 500
acres in general and diversified farming. Mr. Kirk-
land was elected clerk of courts in 1916.
In 1899 he married Miss Carrie Brabham. They
have six children : N. Fletcher, Elizabeth, William,
Inez, Asbury, Jr., and Frank. Mr. Kirkland is
affiliated with the Masonic order, the Knights of
Pythias, and is a trustee of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South.
Albert Murray Denbow. While he has lived in
the state only a comparatively few years, Albert
Murray Denbow is widely known as a financier and
as an executive officer in half a dozen banks and
business corporations in the southern part of the
state.
Mr. Denbow, whose home is at Bamberg, where
he is president of the Peoples Bank, was born in
Canandaigua, New York, April 12, 1884, third among
the five children of Alfred and Cora (Howard)
Denbow. The parents are both natives of England
and immigrated from Devonshire in 1870, first set-
tling at Canandaigua, New York. Alfred Denbow
spent his active career as a banker. He was active
in New York politics, and was prominent in the
financial world. He died in 1890.
Albert Murray Denbow was educated in New
York State, and at the close of his schooling located
in Richmond, Virginia. He was engaged in the
banking business in Richmond with John L. Wil-
liams & Sons, bankers. In 1908 he located at Aiken,
South Carolina, where he became assistant cashier
of the First National Bank. His home has been
at Bamberg since 191 2. He served successively as
cashier, vice president and since 1916 as president
of the Peoples Bank at Bamberg. He is also presi-
dent of the Commercial Bank of Blackville, which
he organized in 1917; is organizer of the First
National Bank of Barnwell, which was established
in 1917, and is organizer and vice president of the
Citizens Bank of Aiken. He organized and is active
head of the Denbow Tobacco Warehouse of Bam-
berg, and was one of the organizers and is a
director of the Bankers National Life Insurance
Company of Orangeburg.
Mr. Denbow is prominent in Masonry, being
affiliated with Orangeburg Commandery of the
Knights Templar and a member of the Scottish Rite
Consistory of Charleston. He is a member of
Omar Temple, Order of the Mystic Shrine at
Charleston, South Carolina. He is also an Odd
Fellow and is district deputy of the Third District,
Knights of Pythias of South Carolina. In 1916
Mr. Denbow married Mrs. Allie Jennings O'Hem,
daughter of George A. and Julia Jennings, of
Bamberg. Mrs. Denbow is a member of one of the
oldest South Carolina families, which contributed
much to the history of the state in the past Sev-
eral members of her family took part in the Con-
federate struggle. She is also a niece of the late
Gen. Francis Marion Bamberg.
Elbert Herman Aull has been editor of the New-
berry Herald and News for thirty-five years. While
he has been devoted to his profession of journalism,
his career on the whole has been a varied one and of
many useful services. Several years ago a writer
describing his career said: "While at college he
intended to be a lawyer, but circumstances were such
that he commenced work as an educator instead of
as a legal practitioner. When he had almost de-
termined to continue teaching for an indefinite period
conditions changed and he was gradually drawn
into newspaper work. Finding that he could not
carry on both lines at the same time, and believing
that the newspaper field offered the most immediate
returns, with, perhaps, better opportunities for ad-
vancement, he gave up teaching and has since been
doing efficient work in the editorial profession."
He was born in Newbury County August 18,
1857, son of Jacob Luther and Julia (Haiti wanger)
AuH. His grandfather Rev. Herman Aull was a
pioneer Lutheran minister. The father was a miller
and farmer. Elbert H. Aull lived in a country
district when a boy and though his early opportuni-
ties were confined to country schools he did much
to develop a many sided and versatile nature. He
worked on the farm, as a carpenter, and in flour
and saw mills. In 1877 he entered the sophomore
class of Newberry College and graduated with the
A. M. degree in 1880. For one year he taught at
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
111
Abbeville and during the following two years was
an instructor in Newberry College and was studying
law at the same time. He was admitted to the bar
in 1883.
In 1885 he took up his duties as editor of the
Newberry Herald and News, and in March, 1887, be-
came financially interested in the paper. In Septem-
ber, 1907, he also became editor of the South Caro-
,Iina Pythian, the official organ of the Grand Lodge
of the • Knights of Pythias of the state. He was
elected president of the South Carolina Press As-
sociation in 1894 and held that office for sixteen
years by re-election.
Mr. Aull in 1899 was journal clerk of the State
Senate and in June of the same year became private
secretary to Governor McSweeney, remaining four
years, and also served with the rank of lieutenant-
colonel on his staflF. During 1903-04 he was a mem-
ber of the State Legislature and among the measures
credited to him was introducing and securing the
passage of an act establishing free libraries for pub-
lic schools in rural communities. During 1905-06
he was chief clerk of the engrossing department of
the Legislature and in November, 1906, was again
elected a member of the Legislature for two years.
Mr. Aull was superintendent of education for New-
berry County, and is now superintendent for the
fourteenth decennial census of the third district.
He is a member of the Lutheran Church and is
affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Indepen-
dent Order of Odd Fellows and the Improved Order
of Red Men. On February 14, 1881, he married
Miss Alice Kinard who died in Julv, 191 1. They
became the parents of six children, four of whom
grew up. Mr. Aull married for his present wife
Miss Mae Amiek, in June, 191 5, and has two sons
by this marriage.
Of the three sons of his first marriage who grew
to manhood John Kinard Aull is the court stenog-
rapher of the Fourth Judicial Circuit of South Caro-
lina and James Luther Aull and Humbert Mayer
Aull are associated with their father in the publica-
tion of The Herald and News.
Perry M. Buckingham. Through an active and
interesting career duty has ever been the motive
of action of Perry M. Buckingham, manager of
the Bank of Western Carolina at Barnwell, and
usefulness to his fellowmen has not been by any
means a secondary consideration. He has per-
formed well his part in life, and it is a compliment
worthily bestowed to say that his locality is hon-
ored in his citizenship, for he has achieved definite
success through his own efforts and is thoroughly
deserving of the proud American title of self-made
man, the term being one that, in its better sense,
cannot but appeal to the loyal admiration of all who
are ^ appreciative of our national institutions and
the ' privileges afforded for individual accomplish-
ment.
Perry M. Buckingham was born in Barnwell,
South Carolina, on November 6, 1862, and it is an
unusual fact worthy of note that ^>e was born in
the same house, in the same room and on the same
bed now occupied by him. His father. J. C. Buck-
ingham, was born in Mil ford, Connecticut, but
came to South Carolina about 1840. During the
Civil war he served on the side of the Confederacy
as a member of the Home Guards. For many
years he was engaged in the mercantile trade in
Barnwell and lived to the age of eighty-three years.
He was the son of Samuel Buckingham, also a
native of Connecticut. The subject's mother, whose
maiden name was Esther Rebecca Gildersleeve, was
born in Connecticut, the daughter of Sylvester Gil-
dersleeve, also a native of Connecticut and
of a family of ship builders. He lived to the
advanced age of ninety-six years. Esther Rebecca
Buckingham bore her husband four children, of
whom the subject of this review is the only sur-
vivor, and she lived to the age of seventy-eight
years.
Perry M. Buckingham attended the common
schools, and then became a student in St Paul's
School at Concord, New Hampshire, a preparatory
school, where he was graduated in 188 1. Soon
afterward he entered in a modest way on the career
which has led him to his present plane of activity,
usefulness and comfort. His first employment was
as cashier for a railroad at Richmond, Virginia,
whence he was later transferred to Jacksonville,
Florida, as train master. After filling that position
for three years he returned to Virginia as general
freight and passenger agent, with headquarters at
Richmond. He filled that position about three years,
at the end of which time he came to Barnwell and
accepted the position of cashier of the Citizens
Savings Bank, holding that position until 1890, when
,he became cashier of the Bank of Barnwell, filling
'that position until 1908, when he became president
of that institution. In 1909 the Bank of Barnwell
was merged, along with several other banks of Aiken
and Barnwell counties, into what is known as the
Bank of Western Carolina, at which time Mr.
Buckingham became vice president of the new in-
stitution and manager of its branch bank at Barn-
well, which relations he still sustains. Thoroughly
qualified by natural aptitude and experience for the
banking business, Mr. Buckingham has proven a
decided success in this line and much of the splen-
did success which has attended this bank has been
directly due to his sound discretion, mature judg-
ment and personal popularity. He has taken an
active part in all movements for the upbuilding
and development of this community, and during the
recent war activities he was especially prominent,
serving as chairman of the Liberty Loan drive and
treasurer of the Barnwell Chapter of the Red Cross
Society ever since its organization. He has been
deeply interested in educational matters, and for
the past eighteen years has rendered effective and
appreciated service as a member of the board of
trustees of the Barnwell school board. In 1918 he
was a member of the County Board of Education,
and in many other ways has exhibited a commend-
able attitude towards all movements for the public
welfare.
On October 5. 1892, Mr. Buckingham was mar-
ried to Daisy Duncan, the daughter of the late
Col. William H. Duncan, a review of whose life
appears elsewhere in this work. All who come
within range of his influence are outspoken in their
praise of his admirable qualities and the high regard
in which he is held, not only in business life, but so-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
cially, which indicate the possession of attributes
and characteristics that fully entitle him to the re-
spect and good will of his fellow men which is freely
accorded him throughout the community where he
lives. He is an Episcopalian.
WiLUAM Jasper Young, M. D. For over forty-
five years the name of Dr. William J. Young, of
Fairfax, has been a household word in his section
of the state, where he has built up a large and
lucrative practice, being numbered among the repre-
sentative citizens of this locality, having ever been
known to be an able, reliable and progressive physi-
cian and patriotic in citizenship. He is esteemed for
these commendable traits, together with his cordial
disposition and genuine worth, and although he has
been more or less active in various relations with
his fellow men, his name stands out more promi-
nently in connection with the medical profession,
in which he has so long been a prominent figure.
William Jasper Young is the eighth child in order
of birth of the ten children bom to Frederick and
Annie Miley (Blatts) Young, his birth having oc-
curred in Barnwell County, South Carolina, on
February lo, 1851. The subject's mother was born
at Rivers Bridge, Barnwell County, and remained
in that county after her marriage to Frederick
Young, they passing the remainder of their lives
there.
William J. Young received his elementary edu-
cation in the common schools of his native locality,
and then attended the high school at Charleston.
Having determined to devote his life to the prac-
tice of medicine, he then matriculated in the medi-
cal department of the University of Maryland,
where he was graduated m 1872. with the degree
of Doctor of Medicine. He spent the following
two years in the Roper Hospital at Baltimore,
where he gained valuable experience. In 1874
Doctor Young came to Fairfax and entered upon
the active practice of his profession, and has re-
mained here ever since. He is a member of the
Barnwell County Medical Society, the South Caro-
lina State Medical Society and the American Medi-
cal Association. During the years of his profes-
sional work in this community Doctor Young has
enjoyed to a notable degree the absolute confidence
of the people. He has kept closely in touch wi:h
all the latest advances in his profession and has
been remarkably successful in his treatment ct
disease. The best part of his life has been given to
the service of the people of this community, and
his long and faithful service has been rewarded
with a competency that would permit him to retire
from active labor if he so desired. He has been
generous in his attitude towards worthy objects,
and among his contributions may be mentioned a
gift of $25,000 to the library of the medical de-
partment of the University of Georgia.
Doctor Young was married to Virginia Durant,
who died in igo6, without issue.
;
James Preston McNair has been one of the
prominent business men of Aiken County for over
thirty years. He has been a manufacturer, farmer,
merchant and banker.
Mr. McNair was born in Robeson County, North
Carolina, July 14, i860, a son of Duncan and Betha
Jane (Alford) McNair. His father was a farmer.
Mr. McNair was educated in public schools and the
Red Springs Academy, and in early life entered the
industry of manufacturing turpentine. Later he
located at Kitchings Mills in Aiken County, was a
merchant there from 1885 to 1905, and also de-
veloped extensive farming interests. In 1906 he
organized the Farmers and Merchants Bank of
Aiken, and has been president of that institution
from the beginning. He also owns a large amount
of farm land and other real estate both in Aiken
County and in Georgia.
Mr. McNair has neglected none of those calls
made upon a citizen for public work. He served as
a member of the Public Works Commission for
Aiken City. He is an elder in the Presbyterian
Church. He married for his first wife Cora Kitch-
ings, of Aiken County, and by that union had six
children. On September 15, 1909, he married Hattie
Roland, of Laurens. They have one child.
Charles Thomas Mason of Sumter though his
name is probably not so widely known as some
others who have identified themselves with politics
and public affairs, has been one of the most useful
men of South Carolina, and as an inventor and busi-
ness manager has an almost international fame in
the industrial arts.
He was born at Sumter June 6, 1855, son of
Charles Thomas and Judith G. (Britton) Mason.
He comes by his talents naturally, his father hav-
ing been a pioneer in electrical invention. His
father during the war made telegraph instruments
for the Southern Confederacy and was inventor of
a practical electric fan.
Mr. Mason has spent all his life as a mechanical
and electrical engineer. When twelve years old he
made a working model of an engine which was
awarded a silver medal by the State Fair at Colum-
bia. For some time he gave much thought and
study to solve the great problem of mechanical
picking of cotton, and as early as 1880 invented
a cotton picking machine that would discriminate
between fibrous and non-fibrous material. His chief
business, however, has been the manufacture of
telephones. He b^an making telephones in Sumter
in 1893, organizing the Sumter Telephone Manu-
facturing Company, and was its president and gen-
eral manager until he sold out hi3 interests a few
years ago.
Mr. Mason is the inventor of the ignition system
used on many types of aeroplanes in the United
States, England, France and Italy. Between the
telegraph, which was the first practical application
of electricity to modern life, and the aeroplane,
rapidl/ becoming a commonplace marvel of the
twentieth century, is represented a profound epoch
in industrial art, and at many points the Masons,
father and son, have contributed to the advance-
ment recorded.
Mr. Mason is a director of the Bank of South
Carolina, and a former director of the Bank of
Sumter. He is a member of the Franklin Insti-
tute of Philadelphia and the Royal Society of Arts
of London.
At Baltimore, Maryland, November 16, 1875, he
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married Emma Stewart, a daughter of John H.
Stewart. They have four children: Emma S.,
wife of E. K. Friar; Eleanor, wife of W. I. Crow-
son, Jr.; C. Stewart Mason, who married Miss
Marie Brown; and Carl T. Mason, who married
OUie Delgar.
Peronneau Finley Henderson has been a promi-
nent member of the South Carolina bar for twenty
years, and has added much to the prestige in which
the name Henderson is held in legal circles at
Aiken and that part of the state.
He is a son of Daniel Henderson of Aiken and
was born in that city November 29, 1877. He is a
graduate of the Aiken Institute and took his col-
lege work in Davidson College, North Carolina,
where he was an honor man of his graduating class
in 1897. He read law with the firm of Henderson
Brothers, was admitted to the bar in 1898, and has
steadily practiced law ever since. Mr. Henderson
is a director of the Real Estate & Fidelity Company,
of the Carolina Light & Power Company, of the
Highland Park Hotel Company, the Powells . Hard-
ware Company and is secretary-treasurer of the
Aiken Hospital Association.
He was district chairman of the Second Congrca-
sional District and had charge of the Liberty Loan
drives in that district during the war, and is a
member of the South Carolina Memorial Commis-
sion under appointment of Governor Cooper. He
is now grand chancellor of the Knights of Pythias
of the State of South Carolina.
On June 29, 1904, at Aiken, he married Miss
Grace A. Powell, a native of Aiken and daughter
of James Powell, of Aiken, retired. He was head
of the Powell Hardware Company. They have two
children, Adelaide and Eleanor.
J. Leroy Dukes is an Orangeburg lawyer and
since March, 1914, has been United States commis-
sioner of his district.
He was bom at Orangeburg, October 13, 1889, son
of John H. and Sophie (Johnson) Dukes. His
father was a planter and also prominent in public
a£Fairs in Orangeburg County, serving sixteen years
in the office of sheriff and for three terms, six years,
representing the county in the Legislature. J. Leroy
Dukes after attending public schools entered Wof-
ford College at Spartanburg and was graduated in
1908. He then studied law, was admitted to the
bar in 19 10, and since that date has been busy in
building up a general practice at Orangeburg. He
is a York Rite Mason and Shriner and Elk.
October 16, 1918, he married Margaret Keener
Summers, of Calhoun County. Mr. Dukes is
steward and trustee of St. Paul's Methodist Epis-
copal Church at Orangeburg. .
Robert Lide. Few men in Orangeburg have
larger interests both in their home community and
over the state than Robert Lide, long prominent as
a lawyer, banker and public official.
He was born at Greenville November 25, 187 1. a
son of Rev. Thomas P. and Martha Caroline (Haw-
kins) Lide. He is of Welsh ancestry, and his
family history goes back to Robert Lide, who was
bom in Virgmia in 1734 and came to South Caro-
lina with a relative and settled in the Darlington
Vol. V— 8
district, and was later a major in the Continental
army under General Marion. The second of his
five sons was Hugh Lide, of Darlington, remarkable,
says an old history, "for strength of character and
solidity of understanding." A son of Hugh was
Evan James Lide, and the latter was the father
of the late Thomas P. Lide, who died August 2,
1906, after a life-long devotion to the Baptfst Church.
He was one of the most prominent ministers of that
faith in the Pee Dee Association.
Robert Lide spent his youth in the various com-
munities where his father was pastor. His father
was able to send him to college, and he graduated
from Wake Forest College in North Carolina in
June. 1892. From that time forward he was de-
pendent upon his own energies and exertions, and
by work in a lawyer's office and agency work for
an insurance company prepared for a professional
career. He studied law with B. H. Moss at Orange-
burg, and was admitted to practice in 1894. The
firm of Moss and Lide has been a prominent one
in the South Carolina bar for a quarter of a century.
Mr. Lide was appointed a united States com-
missioner in 1895, and held that office for a num-
ber of years. From 1900 to 1904 he represented
his county in the House of Representatives, and
was elected and served as a state senator from
1908 to 1916. From 1904 to 1914 he was county
chairman of the democratic party and represented
Orangeburg County as a member of the State
Democratic Executive Committee. He has imusual
gifts as a political organizer and has been one of
the most influential men in the circles of his party
in the state. He was a delegate to the Democratic
National Convention at St. Louis in 1916. From
1017 to 1919 he served as mayor of Orangeburg.
For twelve years Mr. Lide was also Orangeburg
correspondent for the Charleston "News and
Courier." He has been a member of the Orange-
burg County Board of Education, and is a deacon
in the Baptist Church, and long has been prominent
in the fraternal orders. He is a past chancellor of
the Knights of Pythias lodge, and past consul
commander of his camp in the Woodmen of the
World. He is a past head consul of South Carolina,
and since 1909 has represented the state head camp
in the sovereign camp of the United States.
He helped organize the Bank at Elloree in Orange-
burg County, where his father was once pastor,
in 1904, and has ever since been president of the
bank, which is now the First National Bank of
Elloree. He is also director and attorney for the
First National Bank of Holly Hill.
June 2, 1897. Mr. Lide married Ethel Mildred
Lowman, daughter of Dr. J. W. Lowman of Orange-
burg. They have three daughters, Mildred, Evelyn
and Ethel.
J. Stokes Salley, a lawyer and business man
of Orangeburg, has been one of the progressive
factors of the affairs of his native community since
earlv manhood.
He was born at Orangeburg October 27, 1880. a
son of George Lawrence and Mattie (Stokes) Sal-
ley. Reference is made to the career of his father
on other pages. The son was educated in the local
high school, attended Wofford College, and for five
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
years was deputy county clerk. While in that office
he was diligently preparing for his profession as a
lawyer, and was admitted to the bar in 1904. For one
year he served as circuit solicitor and has since ap-
plied himself to the private practice of law. He is
also a director of the Peoples Natronal Bank, the
Orangeburg Packing Company, is president of a
bottling company, and is secretary of the A. C.
Watson Company, a general insurance agency.
November 15, 1905, he married Lizzie C. Salley,
of Orangeburg. They have three children: J.
Stokes, Jr., Elizabeth C, and Jane Bruce.
Isaac Calhoun Strauss, a lawyer by profession
and training, has found his activities widely en-
gaged in numerous business relations.
He was born at Florence, South Carolina, May
10, 1873, a son of Alfred A. and Amelia (Wein-
berg) Strauss. His father was a native of Ger-
many, spent his boyhood in France, and on coming
to America settled at Charleston, South Carolina.
His wife was a native of South Carolina.
Isaac C. Strauss was educated in public schools,
also under private tutors, attended hi^h school at
Atlanta, Georgia, one year at the University of
South Carolina, and took a course at Eastman's
Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York. He
was an office boy with the well known law firm of
Lee & Moise at Sumter, studied law with them,
and upon his admission to the bar in 1896, became
associated with his former preceptors and employers.
From 1898 to 1918, twenty years, Mr. Strauss
served as referee in bankruptcy, finally resigning
that office. In that capacity he did a great deal
of work, hardly compensated by any of the material
rewards paid him for his services, and resulting
in many nice adjustments of business interests,
and altogether his record was a happy combi-
nation of the judicial temperament and thorough
business acumen.
Mr. Strauss is president of the Palmetto Insur-
ance Company, president of The Sumter Trust Com-
pany, vice president of the City National Bank, is
a director and general counsel for the Sumter Tele-
phone Company, a director of Harby Company,
director of the Interstate Clay Company, director of
the Bank of Haygood and Bank of Pinewood. He
is president of the "Congregation Sinai" at Sum-
ter, and throughout his career has extended his
personal energies and means in behalf of many
charitable causes.
September 4, 1900, he married Hattie Ryttenberg
of Sumter, daughter of Harry and Rose (Nuss-
baum) Ryttenberu.
Hon. James Benjamin Black. While he has
had half a century in which to do the work of
his life, few men employed their years and talents
and opportunities with better distinction than Dr.
James Benjamin Black of Bamberg. Until recent
years he was engaged in the practice of medicine.
He is one of the prominent physicians of South
Carolina. Many business affairs have also pre-
sented themselves to his attention, and for a quar-
ter of a century he has been a potent figure in the
politics of the southern part of the state. The
state as a whole knows him through his long serv-
ice in both the House and Senate, where his in-
fluence has been exerted in helpful ways in behalf
of an enlightened program of constructive legis-
lation.
Doctor Black ^as born in Colleton County July
ip, 1849. His father, Robert Black, who was of
English and Irish descent, served as captain in the
State Troops during the war between the states,
and while a farmer and planter he also became
prominent in county politics, serving as sheriff for
twenty years and also as county treasurer. Robert
Black married Elizabeth Caldwell, who was born
in Colleton County, while her father came from
Ireland.
James Benjamin Black though reared in the im-
poverished period of the war and reconstruction
times, acquired a liberal education, attending the
common and high schools of his native county, took
one course of lectures in the South Carolina Medical
College and finished his medical education in the
University of Maryland at Baltimore. In 1872 he
began practice in Colleton County, and after seven
years moved to Bamberg, where he continued to
employ his strength in meeting the heavy demands
made upon his professional talents until about five
years ago, when he retired except for office and
consultation work. In the meantime many other
interests have developed. -For forty years he has
conducted a drug store on one spot in Bamberg.
Farming on a modest scale has also been one of his
interests, and for a quarter of a century he was
associated with his brother Thomas Black in the
livestock business.
On the death of Thomas Black in October, 1918,
Dr. Black's son C. E. Black took the active man-
agement of this business. Doctor Black also has
stock in the Bamberg Banking Company, in the
Enterprise Bank, recently changed to the First
National Bank of Bamberg, is a former president
of the Bamberg Bank and now a director in the
two institutions.
Doctor Black has given an almost continuous
service in the Legislature for a quarter of a cen-
tury. He was in the House eight years and has
been in the Senate for sixteen years. Some of the
causes with which his work in the Legislature has
been especially identified are prohibition, good
roads, education and public health. He is chairman
of the Senate committee on medical affairs, and
for several years has been one of the trustees and
vice president of the Medical College of the State
of South Carolina. His home locality has long
considered him the chosen leader in the demo-
cratic party, and he has served as chairman of the
Central Committee and chairman of the Bamberg
Democratic Club. He is also a former mayor of
Bamberg. Fraternally Doctor Black is a past master
of Lodge No. 38. Ancient Free and Accepted Ma-
sons, is a past district deputv grand master of the
Grand Lodge, ^ York Rite Mason and Shriner. He
is also a past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias
and a member of the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows and Woodmen of the World. Doctor Black
is a deacon in his home Baptist Church and for
over thirtv years has been a teacher in the Sunday
school. He served as moderator of the Barnwell
Baptist Association for several years and as presi-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
115
dent of the County Sunday School Convention also
for a number of years. When he was a young
man and doing his first work as a physician in
Colleton County he received a commission from
Governor Wade Hampton as captain of a local
cavalry company.
While his purposes and ideals in life have been
expressed in a large degree of individual service
and achievement, Doctor Black has every reason
to be proud of the family of children who have
grown up in his home. He married in Barnwell,
now Bamberg County, August i, 1872, Miss Hattie
Ayer, a daughter of Charles F. Ayer. Her father
was a grand-nephew of General Ayer, a distin-
guished character in the military affairs of the
early state. Ten children were born to Doctor and
Mrs. Black, seven of whom are still living: Mary
Elizabeth, now deceased, was the wife of Col. F. N.
K. Bailey, who conducts the well known military
school at Greenwood, South Carolina; J. Benjamin,
who died in infancy; Miles Jackson, a traveling
salesman; Minnie Quincy, wife of Fred W. Free,
of Bamberg; Doctor Robert, a practicing physician
at Bamberg; Doctor Thomas, a dentist at Bamberg;
Dr. Charles F., who also qualified as a physician
and practiced until his death at Bamberg; Clarence
Ervin, an attorney by profession, but, as mentioned
above, is now in charge of his father's stock busi-
ness; Miss Ethel, a teacher at Estill, South Caro-
lina; and Miss Urma, a music teacher at Bamberg.
Jonathan Ingell Hazard has been a George-
town business man thirty years, first as a merchant,
but for the greater part of the time as a banker
and developer of various projects in and around
the city many of which have directly contributed
to Georgetown's growth and prosperity.
Mr. Hazard was born at Conway in Horry County,
South Carolina, November 8, 1864, a son of Ben-
jamin I. and Sarah Freeborn (Ingell) Hazard.
The Hazard family came to South Carolina from
Rhode Island in 1849. Jonathan I. Hazard was
educated in private schools and in business college
and at the age of seventeen went to work in his
father's merchandise store as office boy. After a
time his father made him assistant bookkeeper
and after laying the foundation of a sound busi-
ness experience he removed to Decatur, Alabama,
in April, 1888, and engaged in the house furnish-
ing business under the name Hazard & Wright.
Selling out in 1890 he returned to his native state
in 1891 and took an active part in organizing the
Bank of Georgetown, serving as its first cashier.
He is now vice president and cashier. This bank
has long been a bulwark in the financial affairs of
Georgetown. It has a capital of $100,000, a surplus
of $100,000 and undivided profits of $30,000. Mr.
Hazard as a factor in the real estate business is
president of the Hazard Addition Company, is
secretary and treasurer of the Carolina Farm Land
Development Company, an organization which has
been instrumental in colonizing many tracts of South
Carolina with northern people, is secretary-treasurer
of the Rhem' Dock and Terminal Company, secre-
tary-treasurer of the Washington Park Real Es-
tate Company, and secretary-treasurer of the
Georgetown Land Association.
Mr. Hazard is also a director of the Chamber
of Commerce, and was one of the citizens of George-
town who worked hardest and most faithfully for
the installation of an adequate water and sewer-
age system. He served as a member of the City
Commissioners. He was also a member of the
Volunteer Fire Department as president of the
Winyah Hose Reel Company. He served during
the World war as chairman of the County Council
•of National Defense, and as chairman of the Four
Minute Men. He served as treasurer of George-
town Chapter of the American Red Cross, as well
as of the successive war fund campaigns. Mr.
Hazard is junior warden of Prince George Winyah
Episcopal Church.
January 4, 1888, he married Miss Fannie Wright
of Bucksville, Horry County, South Carolina. They
have three children. The son, J. I., Jr., who grad-
uated from the University of South Carolina in
191 1 and is now assistant cashier of the Bank of
Georgetown, served as ensign in the navy from
February, 1918, until mustered out in February,
1919. The two daughters, Ruth Hattie and Sarah
Ingell, are both graduates of Converse College.
J. Lamb Perry. The legal profession is one that
demands much and requires of its devotees im-
plicit and unswerving devotion to its exactions.
Long and continued study; natural ability and keen
judgment with regard to men and their motives,
are all required in the making of a successful
lawyer. That so many pass beyond the ordinary
in this calling and become figures of note, demon-
strates that :this profession brings out all that is
best and most capable in a man. For ages the
most brilliant men of all countries have turned
their attention to the study of the law, and es-
pecially is this true in the United States, where the
form of government gives opportunity to the man
of brains to climb even into the very highest posi-
tion within the gift of the people, and it is a notable
fact that from among the lawyers have more of our
great men come than from all of the other callings
combined. One of the men who is notable as a
lawyer and a public-spirited citizen of Charleston,
J. Lamb Perry, exemplifies these facts, and was
born here in the '60s, a son of Archibald Simpson
Johnston Perry, a native of South Carolina, and
grandson of Benjamin Perry, at one time Secretary
of State, and who was also born in South Carolina.
The mother of J. Lamb Perry bore the maiden
name of Martha Henrietta Lamb, and was born
at Charleston, a daughter of James and Mary
(Somers) Lamb, natives of England and South
Carolina, respectively. J. Lamb Perry is the only
son of his parents, but he had two sisters, namely:
Jane Johnston, who married Duke Litta-Visconti-
Arese of Italy, died in February. 1920; and Mary
Lamb, who married Blackburn Hughes, died about
1911.
J. Lamb Perry attended a private school of
Charleston until he matriculated at Union College
at Schenectady. New York, from which he was
graduated in 187Q. He then studied law and was
admitted to the bar at Columbia. South Carolina,,
in 1881. following which he returned to Charleston,
where he has since been engaged in an active prac-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
tice. In addition to his profession Mr. Perrj' has
business interests and is president of the John-
ston-Crews Company, wholesale dry goods dealers,
the oldest established business of its kind at Charles-
ton, or in fact in the country.
In 1883 Mr. Perry was united in marriage with
Miss Caroline Stuart Buist, who died in 1913 leav-
ing three sons, namely: Archibald Simpson, James
Lamb, Jr., and Edward Henry Buist, and one daugh-
ter, Martha Henrietta. For a number of years Mr."
Perry has been a member of the Presbyterian
Church, ^hich he is now serving as an elder. His
career is interesting, for his success is due to his
own ability. He has reaped only where he has
sown, and the harvest with its valuable aftermath
is now his. He has reached his high professional
standing through no favors of influential friends,
but because of his knowledge of the law and his
fearlessness in interpreting it and bringing to bear
upon the conduct of his cases the force of his keen
intellect and the benefit of his long and varied
experience which made him from the first able to
.judge correctly of men and their motives. Without
this latter qualification few men are able to prose-
cute their calling as lawyers, for it is necessary
to understand the complex workings of a man's
mind in order to get at the true facts in a case.
Daniel Hazel Marchant is a veteran busmcss
man of Orangeburg, where he has been a merchant
nearly forty years.
He was born in Graniteville, in what is now
Aiken, then Edgefield, County, in 1854, a son of
Wesley and Charlotte (Hook) Marchant. The Mar-
chant family is of French Huguenot descent. The
first of the name on coming to America settled at
Tidewater, Virginia, and later in Lower South Caro-
lina, in the vicinity of Charleston. In different gen-
erations this family has always produced strong
and able men and upright citizens. Wesley Mar-
chant was a native of South Carolina. His wife was
a member of the well known Hook family, with
prominent connections in Lexington County. Great-
grandfather Martin Hook came from Hesse, Ger-
many, during the Revolutionaiy war, but was not
a typical "Hessian," since he joined the American
patriot forces against Great Britain. This Revolu-
tionary soldier married Sarah Senn. The maternal
grandfather of Daniel H. Marchant was Nicholas
Hook.
When Daniel H. Marchant was six years of age
his parents left Graniteville and moved to a farm
about three miles from Columbia in Lexington
County. He was there until about fifteen and sub-
sequently lived for several years at Columbus,
Georgia. September i, 1881, he identified himself
with Orangeburg, and that city has since been his
permanent home. For ten years he had charge of
the piano department of the general mercantile es-
tablishment of George H. Cornelson. Thus forti-
fied with a wide experience and acquaintance he
became engaged in the merchandise business for
himself. His store is one of the principal ones of
the kind in this section of South Carolina. He is
a dealer in pianos, organs and talking machines, and
a varied line of musical goods.
Mr. Marchant is a Knight Templar Mason and
Shriner and a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. At Columbus, Georgia, he married Miss
Julia Bond, daughter of Rev. William D. Bond, a
Methodist minister. They have five children, Atti-
cus Hagood; Qaniel H., Jr.,; Lela Estellc, wife of
J. G. Smith, Jr.; Julia Belle, wife of J. W. Culler;
and William Wesley Marchant. One child, Albert
Andrew Marchant, died in 1916, at the age of thirty-
six. D. H. Marchant and all of his family on both
sides are one hundred per cent American.
Benjamin Huger Rutledge, member of one of
the prominent families of Charleston, has been an
active and diligent member of the bar of that city
for over thirty-five years. He has given his time
to his profession with few outside interests, though
frequently appointed to offices of trust.
Mr. Rutledge was bom at Charleston September
4, 1 861, a son of Benjamin Huger and Eleanor
Maria (Middleton) Rutledge. He acquired his
early education in Charleston, graduated in 1880
from the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington,
and received his A. B. degree from Yale College in
1882. He was admitted to the South Carolina bar
in 1884, and practiced for many years as a member
of the law firm Mordecai, Gadsden & Rutledge and
still later as senior partner of Rutledge, Hyde &
Mann.
Mr. Rutledge has served with the rank of major
in the South Carolina National Guards. He was
elected a member of the South Carolina General
Assembly in i8po, and for years was clerk of the
judiciary committee of the Legislature. In 1884 he
was chosen electoral messenger from South Caro-
lina at the time of Cleveland's first election. Mr.
Rutledge was delegate at large to the Universal
Congress of Lawyers and Jurists at St. Louis in
1904. He is a member of the St. Cecilia Society,
and the Episcopal Church. On October 5, 1882, he
married Miss Emma Blake, of Fletcher, North
Carolina.
George H. Momeier, former member of the Legis-
lature from Charleston, has been a hard working
law>-er in that city for over twenty years.
He was born at Charleston October 8, 1873. He
was educated in grammar and high schools in his
native city, and was admitted to the bar in 1895.
Mr. Momeier's father was a native of Germany,
came to Charleston when a boy, received his educa-
tion in that city, and married Miss Louise C. Hase,
a native of Charleston, daughter of John and Dor-
othea Hase, Who had come from Germany at an
early date.
Mr. Momeier achieved success in the law after a
few years' practice and is one of the most popular
and able lawyers of the Charleston bar. He is so-
licitor for a number of business concerns and served
as a member of the Legislature in 191 5-16. He is
affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Woodmen
of the World and the Fellowship Society.
April 28, 1898^ he married Ernestine Peters, a
daughter of C. H. Peters. They have five children:
Roland H., Erna W., Arthur George, Frederick L
and Margaret L.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
117
WiLUAM RisH LowMAN, M. D. For over thirty
years Doctor Lowman has been engaged in the
heavy work of his profession at Orangeburg. He
is a former secretary of the South Carolina Medi-
cal Board of Examiners, has given much of his
time to educational affairs in medicine and public
health, and his services and attainments have made
him widely known over the state at large.
He is a son of the late Jacob Waltei; Lowman,
also a physician and distinguished as the first demo-
cratic member of the State Legislature after recon-
struction days. Dr. Jacob Walter Lowman was
bom in Lexington County, March ii, 1837. He
was a descendant of David Lohman, who came from
Germany to Virginia in 1770 and whose son Malachi
Lohman settled at Dutch Forks, South Carolina,
in 1814. Jacob W. Lowman was a son of Daniel
and Nancy (Hiller) Lowman. He began the study
of medicine under his brother-in-law, Dr. John
K. Kneece, and in 1858 graduated from the Medi-
cal Department of the University of Georgia. He
taught school and practiced medicine near Bates-
burg, South Carolina, and during 1863-65 was a
lieutenant in the Confederate army. After the war
he resumed practice in Lexington County and in
1872 was elected a member of the Legislature from
that county. On leaving the Legislature he moved
to Orangeburg, where for thirty years he was a
leader in his profession and equally prominent in
business and civic affairs. He served as vice presi-
dent of the Edisto Savings Bank, as a director of
the Orangeburg Manufacturing Company, was sur-
geon to 3ie Atlantic Coast Line Railway and also
to the C. N. I. A. and M. College of South Caro-
lina. He published a book on hygiene and medical
practice in 1879. He was an active Baptist. His
death occurred January 14, 1905. He married Lo-
dusky Rish, daughter of Levi and Mary Rish, in
1858.
Dr. William Rish Lowman was born in Lexing-
ton G)unty, December 3, 1866, and has lived at
Orangeburg since he was eight years of age. He
^duated from high school there in 1886 and fin-
ished his course in the College of Physicians and
Surgeons at Baltimore in 1888. Afterwards he took
post-graduate courses in New York. Besides a
large private practice he has been surgeon of the
Atlantic Coast Line and was a lecturer in • the
Orangeburg Collegiate Institute, was secretary of
the trustees of the C. N. I. A. and M. College of
South Carolina, has been president of the trustees
of Orangeburg Institute, and has been medical ex-
aminer for many insurance companies. He is a
member of the National Science Association of
America, the State and Tri-State Medical societies
and the American Medical Association. He is a
Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, and is a past
master and past high priest of his lodge and Royal
Arch Chapter.
December 27, 1891, he married Elvira Earle Izlar.
daughter of Judge B. P. Izlar and niece of General
James F. Izlar of Orangeburg.
Caklos Harth Able, M. D. Doctor Able was the
pioneer citizen, business and professional man of
the community of Norway in the western part of
Orangeburg County. Soon after graduating in
medicine he located in that section, and saw the
brush burned away to make room for the first
houses built. No one is better known and esteemed
and has been more conspicuously useful than Doc-
tor Able.
He was born in Lexington County in 1863, a son
of Carson and Priscilla (Stedman) Able. Both his
father and grandfather were natives of Lexington
County, where the Able family settled about the
time of the Revolutionary war. The ancestry is
English. Doctor Abie's grandfather helped build
the first Baptist Church in Lexington County. His
father, still living at the age of eighty-nine at his
old home in Lexington County, was a Confederate
soldier in Captain Kaufman's company. He was in
active service throughout the struggle, but never re-
ceived a wound.
Doctor Able attended common schools and studied
medicine in the medical department of the Univer-
sity of Georgia at Augusta. He was graduated with
the class of 1884, and in the same year settled at
the present Town of Norway. All the older fam-
ilies of that community have looked upon him as
their first resource as a physician and surgeon. He
also conducts a general drug store in Norway and
has helped make that town one of the best of its
size in the state, situated as it is in the midst of
a rich and progressive section. Doctor Able was
one of the founders and is president of the First
Bank of Norway, a splendid institution, very strong
financially and occupying its own building, a mod-
ern three-story office structure that would be a
credit to a much larger city. Doctor Able is also
owner of some valuable planting interests in
Orangeburg County, consisting of 195 acres ad-
joining the town and planted in cotton, corn and
general produce.
His first wife was Miss Emma Johnson, of Aiken
County, daughter of Edward Johnson, of that
county. She was the mother of five children, Annie,
Grover, Gerhard, Ruth and Gordon. Doctor Able
married for his present wife Mrs. Nannette Bren-
neke.
Grover is engaged in the merchandise business at
Norway. Gerhard is in the insurance business at
the same place, and Gordon is attending college at
Charleston, now taking the pre-medical course.
John Hf.nry Burnrv. It is in keeping with the
ancient and honorable traditions of South Carolina
that some of the most vital and progressive move-
ments in recent times should originate in the state.
A movement affecting a numerous class was the
recent organization of the Roadmasters and Super-
visors Association of America, the founder of which
and the secretary-treasurer of the association is
John Henry Burney of Orangeburg.
Mr. Burney, whose home has been at Orangeburg
since 1909, was for a number of years road super-
visor of the Southern Railway. Road supervisors
and roadmasters are highly important and respon-
sible men in relation to the welfare and physical
maintenance of American railways. Until recently,
however, they were not organized or associated with
a view to furthering their interests. Realizing the
necessity for such organization, especially in view
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
of the federalization of the railroads, Mr. Burney
took the preliminary steps toward organization, car-
rying on the work entirely by correspondence. In
order to give his entire time to the business he re-
signed from the Southern Railway in the fall of
191 8, and in October, 1919, he had the satisfaction
of seeing the Roadmasters and Supervisors Associa-
tion of America consummated, embracing officials
of that class not only in the United States but in
Canada, and therefore an international organization.
The offices and official headquarters are at Orange-
burg, with Mr. Burney as secretary-treasurer and
managing head. Already through negotiations car-
ried on with the railroad administration at Wash-
ington many direct benefits have accrued to thi^
class of railroad men, not only in the matter of
salaries but other advantages in working conditions.
Mr. Burney was born at Clarkton, Bladen County,
North Carolina, in 1883, a son of A. F. and Sarah
Ellen (Benson) Burney. He was reared and educated
in Clarkton and has been a railroad man since six-
teen years of age. He went to work for the Georgia
Central Railroad at Savannah, Georgia, in the road-
way department. Later he was in the operating
department of the same road, first as flagman and
later as train conductor. In the fall of 1908 he
became section foreman for the Southern Railway
at Charleston, and in November, 1909, was pro-
moted to road supervisor, with home and headquar-
ters at Orangeburg. His supervision extended to
the lines from Branchville to Columbia and from
Kingsville to Kershaw, including the Sumter branch.
Upon him in that office devolved the physical main-
tenance of way, obviously one of the larger respon-
sibilities of railroad work.
Mr. Burney is a Mason and a member of the
Presb3^erian Church. He married Miss Eugenia
Griner of Statesboro, Georgia. Their three children
are Eugenia, Edith and John H., Jr.
John Henry Caldwell. While his home and
interests for a number of yeans have been in one
of the quiet rural communities of Spartant)urg
County, John Henry Caldwell has performed a serv-
ice to the entire cause of agriculture not only in
the South but everywhere, that should justify his
being better known throughout his home state.
Mr. Caldwell has the distinction of being the first
to use djmamite in practical farming. In recent
years a great propaganda has been launched for
the use of • blasting materials in many forms of
farm work, and the process of disturbing and shat-
tering the original strata, especially where hard,
compacted or in the shape of hard pan, is now gen-
erally commended and recommended by agricul-
tural authorities. But it was Mr. Caldwell who gave
first practical proof of the method and carried it
out on a scale admitting of broad tests.
As a result of what he has done in this direction
Mr. Caldwell is widely known as *T>ynamite Cald-
well." Mr. Caldwell was borri in Haywood County,
North Carolina, April 11, 1854^ but has been a resi-
dent of Spartanburg County since 1872, when he
was eighteen years of age. His father was Al-
ford Caidwell, a native of Spartanbufg County, and
the grandfather, Hughie Caldwell, was bom in
the same section of South Carolina. The family
were pioneer settlers of the Tyger River in Upper
South Carolina. Mr. Caldwell's great-grandfather
donated the land where the old Nazareth Church
now stands, the second oldest church in that section
of the state. The Cald wells were of Scotch origin
and came to the Carolinas from Virginia. Alford
Caldwell married Sarah Hannah, a native of Hay-
wood County, North Carolina, and a daughter of
Evins Hannah of English ancestry and a native of
North Carolina.
John Henry Caldwell is the only son of his par-
ents. His one living sister is Mary Ann Caldwell.
He spent his boyhood days in Haywood County
and was educated there. His first experience in the
use of dynamite was as a loader with a firm of
contractors on the Asheville Division of the South-
em Railroad. For about fifteen years he was cm-
ployed as an expert in the use of dynamite, in mines,
in the blasting of wells, and in general construction
work.
In the meantime he bought a farm at Wellford,
and continued the practice of agriculture there for
twenty-seven years. In 1903 Mr. Caldwell bought
his present home at Ardella, four miles west of
Spartanburg. He now has 118 acres. The land
cost him at purchase only $3,200. It is now con-
servativelv valued at $32,000. Mr. Caldwell states
that the land in 1903 produced only ten bushels of
com to the acre or one bale of cotton to three acres.
In 1919 some of the same land showed a produc-
tion of 100 bushels of corn to the acre, while he
grew seventy-six bales of cotton on fifty acres.
These results seem nothing less than remarkable,
and* Mr. Caldwell attributes the change almost en-
tirely to the use of d)mamite. He has placed heavy
charges of that explosive beneath the soil, and the
subsequent blast has thoroughly stirred both the top
soil and sub-soil and mixed the different elements,
and made available latent quantities of plant food
which could never have been made available by
any known processes of cultivation, even with the
deepest plow. The results speak for themselves,
and Mr. Caldwell is convinced that while the use
of dynamite entails a heavy initial expense, it is
cheaper in the long run than commercial fertilizer.
Mr. Caldwell is also interested in a store at Ar-
della. In that community he is known as a man
of public spirit, and one who has the courage to
back his convictions and vision by actual demon-
strative proof. He has used his influence in behalf
of educational and school enterprises, and is also
credited with some of the work that brought an
electric lighting system to his locality. He has been
in politics to some extent, and was a candidate for
the Legislature, being defeated by only a few votes.
For sixteen years he was a member of the Knights
of Honor, for eight years was affiliated with the
Woodmen of the World, and as a youth from 1872
to 1875 served as a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
In 1876 he married Isabel Ann Jane Cooper,
daughter of W. A. Cooper of Spartanburg County.
Nine children were born to their marriage. One
son and one daughter are now deceased. The old-
est of those living is Martha Elizabeth, wife of
Eber Johnson; Susie is the wife of F. L. Bradley;
J. M. married Miss Cora Jackson of North Caro-
lina; Jesse Valentine married Eva Steadman;
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
119
Austell, Toy Thomas and Roy Max are all at home.
The sons Austell and Toy were soldiers in the
World war with very creditable records. Both of
them enlisted before the draft was issued. Austell
served in the First Division and spent twenty-six
months in France. He was in eleven distinct bat-
tles before he was wounded and he was again
wounded, both times by shell fire. He served all
through as a private. The son, Toy, was in Com-
pany F of the One Hundred and Eij^hteenth In-
fantry and saw all the overseas service with the
Thirtieth Division.
Charles A. Mobley, M. D. Doctor Mobley is a
Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and
for several years has confined his practice exclu-
sively to surgery, a field in which he has well mer-
ited prominence throughout the state. Doctor Mob-
ley recently founded the Orangeburg Hospital, and
the direction of tiiat modern institution is now his
chief care.
Doctor Mobley was born at Rock Hill, South
Carolina, in 1888. He comes of a family of phy-
sicians and surgeons, and represents the historic
Mobhey ancestry which has been in South C'arolina
since about 1758, founded by Edward Mobley. His
grandfather is Dr. James Mobley, a retired phy-
sician whose home is in Florida. His maternal
grandfather Hope was also a physician. The par-
ents of Doctor Mobley were Frel and Anna (Hope)
Mobley, the latter still living.
Doctor Mobley acquired his literary education in
the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and took
his medical course in the Medical College of South
Carolina at Charleston, where he graduated in 1910.
His first home as a physician was at Van Wyck, in
Lancaster County, whence he removed to his native
city, Rock Hill. For several years at Rock Hill he
was associated with Doctor FenneU, a prominent
surgeon of that city. In 1919 Doctor Mobley chose
the rich and rapidly growing City of Orangeburg
as his permanent home, and in September opened
the Orangeburg Hospital. This is a modern hos-
pital with every facility and appliance for surgical
work and the care of patients. A nurses* training
school has been established, and there is a separate
building for negro patients.
Doctor Mobley every year has interrupted his
work a few weeks or months for further training
and association with eminent men of his profession.
Several times he has been an observer of the meth-
ods and technique of the famous Mayos in Minne-
sota, and has also attended clinics in Boston, New
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Chicago. Besides
being a Fellow of the American College of Sur-
geons, he is a member of the American Medical
Association.
Doctor Mobley married Miss Susie Bailey, of
Edisto Island, a daughter of Edward D. and Louisa
(Whaley) Bailey, both natives of Edisto Island
and from old South Carolina families of Revolu-
tionary ancestry and English descent. Doctor and
Mrs. Mobley have one son, Charles A., Jr.
George Nixon Bunch. The community of Spar-
tanburg gained a very high appreciation of the pro-
fessional talents and the splendid character of the
late Doctor Bunch during the eight years he prac-
ticed dentistry there.
Doctor Bunch, who was stricken in the early prime
of his career and when he had most to live for,
was born at North Augusta, Edgefield County,
South Carolina, January 24, 1888, and died at his
home in Spartanburg, February 3, 1920. His par-
ents were Evan Medling and Ollie (Nixon) Bunch,
also natives of South Carolina. Doctor Bunch ac-
quired his early education in country schools, grew
up on a farm, also attended private school at Au-
gusta, and a private school at Columbia. He ac-
quired a liberal education, at Clemson College,
studying for his profession in the Atlanta Dental
College. He was graduated May 12, 191 1, and after
a brief residence and practice at Gray Court, South
Carolina, and at Greenwood, came to Spartanburg
in 1912. He was a popular member of the com-
munity, belonged to a number of social organiza-
tions, and was a thir^r-second degree Scottish Rite
Mason and Shrii^^r. He had some valuable business
interests, including property in Edgefield County in-
herited from his father's estate. He was a liberal
contributor to the Bethel Methodist Episcopal
Church and a member of its Sunday school.
April 24, 1910, Doctor Bunch married Jessie E.
Wallace, daughter of Watson W. and Martha
(Kelly) Wallace. Mrs. Bunch was the youngest of
four daughters and one son. Her father was born in
Laurens County, South Carolina, and her mother
in Spartanburg County. Mrs. Bunch finished her
education in Lander College. She became the moth-
er of four children: George Wallace, deceased;
Martha Wallace; Evden Hunter, deceased; and
George, Jr.
F. M. Bryan has been a hard working member
of the Charleston bar for over twenty years.
He was born at Charleston June 22, 1875, son of
Judge George D. and Mary M. Middleton (King)
Bryan. His parents were also natives of Charles-
ton, where his father for a number of years was
judge of the Probate Court. F. M. Brj^n was ed-
ucated in the Episcopal High School of Virginia,
and studied law in South Carolina College. He was
admitted to the bar in 1897, and since then has
been engaged in a widely diversified general prac-
tice. He served six years as an influential member
of the State Legislature at Charleston, and has al-
ways taken a useful citizen's part in politics. He
is now probate judge of Charleston County, having
succeeded his father by election in October, 1919.
He is a member of several local clubs and societies,
including the Masons and the Hibernian Society.
Judge Jerry Miles Hughes. An able lawyer,
now serving his second term as probate judge of
Orangeburg County, Judge Hughes has accepted
many calls and opportunities to devote his talents
to the larger objects and aims of his home com-
munity.
He was bom at Orangeburg in 1884, son of J. M.
and Margaret S. (Mack) Hughes, the former a na-
tive of James Island, South Carolina, and the latter
born near Cordova in Orangeburg County. J. M.
Hughes died in 1907.
Jerry Miles Hughes was a studious youth, ac-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
quired his local education in the Orangeburg High
School, ^nd spent four y«ars in the University of
South Carolina. Three years of that time he was
in the general academic department and finished his
law course in one year, graduating in 1907. The
following year he began practice at Orangeburg.
He soon left and went west to Oklahoma, which
had recently been admitted to the Union, and re-
mained in that slate two years. He returned to
Orangeburg in 1910 and for several months taught
school, resuming his law practice in 191 1.
One of the best services he has rendered Orange-
burg Cotmty has been in connection with the
Orangeburg County Fair. This association was es-
tablished in 191 1, with Judge Hughes as secretary,
an office he has filled continuously. Orangeburg is
justly proud of its fair. The fair has exerted a
tremendous influence in developing and improving
the agricultural welfare of the community. The
management has been such as to make this one of
the best fairs in the entire state. During Novem-
ber, 1919, the receipts of the annual fair were
$20,000.
Judge Hughes was elected county attorney in
1914, filling that office two years. In 1916 he was
chosen judge of probate to fill an unexpired term,
and in 1918 was re-elected at the regular electipn.
He is a most competent and faithful official, a very
popular citizen, and enjoys every evidence of trust
and popular esteem. He is president of the Home
Building and Loan Association of Orangeburg.
Judge Hughes is a Methodist and is amliated with
the Knights of Pythias and Masons. He married
Miss Oressa Collier, and they have one son, Jerry»
Miles, Jr.
William Henry Coleman. In the death of Wil-
liam Henry Coleman, which occurred January 27,
1919, South Carolina lost one of its oldest, bravest
and most efficient public servants. He had been a
boy fighter in the Confederate army and from the
close of the war until his death had given about a
third of a century to public office. He was a for-
mer sheriff of Richland County, and at the time of
his death was serving as postmaster of Columbia.
He was born in Pickens County, South Carolina,
March 9, 1850. For a few years of his boyhood
his parents lived in Tennessee. At the age of fif-
teen Mr. Coleman enlisted in the Confederate army
and was with the army during the last six months
of the war. He then located at Columbia and for
some years was a farmer in that vicinity. During
the reconstruction period he was a member of a
Red Shirt company commanded by Captain Lykes.
His first important public service was as depiUy
sheriff under S. W. Rowan. He was deputy sheriff
in Richland County for eighteen years, during the
administrations of Sheriffs Rowan and Cathcart.
He was then elected to that office himself and filled
it for twelve years, until he voluntarily retired. It
was his work in the sheriff's office which brought
him his well deserved reputation throughout Rich-
land County and over a large part of the state.
As is often true of really brave men, Mr. Coleman
had a modesty which would seldom permit him to
speak of the many exciting experiences of his life.
But others knew his trustworthiness, his fearless-
ness in the presence of danger, and his undaunted
determination to discharge his duty at all hazards.
Throughout the long service he rendered in the
sheriff s office no prisoner was ever taken from
him.
Mr. Coleman was appointed postmaster of Colum-
bia in February, 1916, and was the courteous head
of that office for nearly three years. Fraternally
he was a member of the Masonic order, the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias
and Elks, and was a member of Ebenezer Lutheran
Church. He married Miss Annie Taylor Moore of
York County and a descendant from an ancestry
long and prominently identified with the state. On
the paternal side she is a direct descendant of James
Moore, the first governor of South Carolina, and on
her mother's side, a descendant of Col. Thomas Tay-
lor, the donor of the land upon which the City of
Columbia now stands. Mrs. Coleman survives her
husband and is the mother of seven children, four
daughters and three sons. The daughters are, Mrs.
F. F. Hough, of Richmond, Virginia, Mrs. J. A,
Krentzlin, of Washington, District of Columbia,
Mrs. J. B. Sylvan, of Columbia, and Miss Myrtle
Coleman, of Columbia. The sons are, William Au-
gustus toleman, George Trezevant Coleman, 'and
Samuel Rowan Coleman, all residents of Columbia.
William Augustus Coleman. The distinctively
modern trend of business and civic development in
Columbia has had a tireless and effective ally in
William A. Coleman, whose time and energies are
devoted to several commercial organizations, and
he has shown the same aptitude for public adminis-
tration as his late father, whose career is included
in this publication.
Mr. Coleman was born near Columbia in Rich-
land County, March 27, 1880, son of William H.
and Annie Taylor (Moore) Coleman. His early
education was limited to five years in the public
schools of Columbia, and for the rest he has
depended upon his experience and the moulding
power of his own ambition and character. His
longest and most consistent business association has
been as a wholesale druggist, having spent twenty-
three years with the Murray Drug Company. He
then established himself in business as president
of the Covin Candy Company, in association with
Mr. W. D. Drew as vice president and secretary.
In April, 1920, the Covin Candy Company was
succeeded by the Coleman-Drew Company, which
under the same management and with increased
capitalization, engaged m the wholesale drug busi-
ness at Columbia. Mr. Coleman is vice president
of the Liberty National Bank, and a director of
several building and loan and trust companies. In
May, 1918, he was elected commissioner of finance
and police of Columbia. As his record proves he is
the right sort of man in public office, progressively
minded, devoted to the public welfare, and when his
convictions are made up he is aggressive and fear-
less in action.
Mr. Coleman is a member of the Odd Fellows,
the Ridgewood, Columbia and Rotary clubs, and
is affiliated with the Episcopal Church. June 19,
1903, at Columbia, he married Frances Mancr Mix-
son, daughter of Col. F. M. Mixson. Their family
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
121
consists of three chUdren, Nell P., William F. and
Lucy M. Coleman.
James Allan. Though he has been a member of
the bar five years, and nearly two years of that
time sacrificed his practice in order to serve his
country during the war, James Allan has more than
justified the anticipations of his admiring friends
who had followed closely his brilliant career
through college and university.
Captain Allan was born at Summerville, South
Carolina, November 14, 1889. His father, James Allan,
was a native of Charleston, was educated in the city
schools, also abroad in Switzerland, and was in the
wholesale jewelry business. He died when about
forty-eight years of age. The grandfather was also
named James Allan and was a native of Scotland,
coming to South Carolina about 1840. He was also
in the jewelry business. James Allan II married
Mary Doar Tupper, a native of Charleston, and
member of one of the oldest families in the South
and New England. Her father was George Tupper
and her grandfather Tristram Tupper. Tristram
Tupper was president of the South Carolina Rail-
road when it enjoyed the distinction of being the
longest railroad in the world. The Tupper s came
from England about 1637 and settled in Massachu-
setts. The old home at Sandwich, built in 1637,
is still owned by the Tupper Family Association.
Capt. James Allan is the younger of two sons.
His brother, Samuel, was accidentally killed in
1907. Captain Allan was educated in the Charleston
High School and the Porter Military Academy,
where he was awarded three medals, for scholar-
ship, classics and declamation. He took his college
literary course at Davidson College, North Caro-
lina, and during his career there won three medals
for debating. He graduated A. B. and in 1912 was
awarded his master's degree by the University of
South Carolina. Here again he was awarded two
medals for debating and oratory, and for the first
time in twenty-five years won the "All Southern
Oratorical Contest" for the University of South
Carolina. In 1913 he was awarded a law degree by
the university and in 1914 did special work in the
Harvard Law School. He was admitted to the bar
in 19 13 and began practice in Charleston the follow-
ing year.
Captain Allan joined the Charleston Light Dra-
goons for service on the Mexican border in 19 16- 17,
and served as corporal and sergeant. At the out-
break of the war with Germany he was appointed
first lieutenant of a squadron of cavalry bemg or-
ganized by Wsmdham Manning. T-his organization
wais never perfected. He was then appointed a
junior grade lieutenant in the National Naval Vol-
unteers, but the original plans for this organization
were never carried out, due to the fact that the
Naval Militia was federalized. He then entered
the Second Officers Training Camp at Fort Ogle-
thorpe, Georgia, and was commissioned a captain in
the field artillery. He was an instructor in the
Third Training Camp at Camp Jackson. He then
transferred to the Three Hundred and Eighth Cav-
alry when Pershing called for fifteen regiments of
cavalry. He was then stationed at Douglas, Ari-
zona for six months. In August, 1918, all the Na-
tional Army Cavalry by order of the War Depart-
ment was transformed into field artillery. Captain
Allan was then sent for intensive instruction to the
School of Fire at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and com-
pleted his course in reconnoissance and gunnery.
He was assigned to the Fifty-sixth Field Artillery,
then in training for immediate overseas service,
but was kept at Fort Sill until after the armistice
was signed. He received his honorable discharge
December 6, 1918, and at once returned to Charles-
ton and resumed his law practice.
Captain Allan is a member of St. Andrew^s So-
ciety and the Carolina Yacht Club. March 31, 1917,
he married Marian Aley, of Wichita, Kansas. They
have one son, James Allan, Jr., born October 17,
1919.
George Lawrence S alley has been a notable fig-
ure in the public affairs of Orangeburg County for
a number of years, and since December, 1892, has
held the post of county clerk. His official record
has been as satisfactory and honorable as it has
been long. It is interesting to note that his grand-
father, Samuel P. Jones, was clerk in Orangeburg
District in 1812. A hundred and two years later
George L. Salley in the course of his official duties
recorded some papers which had been signed by
his grandfather. Mr. Salley's maternal ancestors
were of English origin and came to America in
colonial days. One of the colonial governors of
South Carolina, William Bull, appointed by the king
of England, was a grandfather of Mrs. Sheldonia
(Bull) Salley, the mother of G. Lawrence Salley.
George Lawrence Salley was born in Orangeburg
County, February 28, 1847, a son of Nathaniel Moss
and Sheldonia (Bull) Salley. He grew up on his
father's plantation and had a common school edu-
cation. He was only fourteen when the war broke
out, and later he went into active service as a mem-
ber of Company D of the Seventh Battery of Ar-
tillenr. When the war was over he went back to
the farm and plantation and was called from that
2uiet routine to the duties of his present office in
)ecember, 1892. For ten years he also served as
registrar and supervisor of elections. He is a di-
rector of the Peoples National Bank of Orange-
burg. Mr. Salley is one of the prominent niem-
bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Orange-
burg, serving as trustee and forty years as record-
ing steward.
December 12, 1875, he married Martha Stokes,
of Barnwell County. They became the parents of
six children. Nathaniel Moss is a member of the
faculty of the State College for Women at Talla-
hasse, Florida. Mary E. is the wife of W. P.
Pollock, present United States senator from South
Carolina. J. Stokes Salley is a prominent lawyer
at Orangeburg. Ada Lockhart is the wife of John
C. Evans. Tames Raworth is a lawyer and deputy
clerk under his father, while the youngest, Katherine
Moss, is the wife of Dr. N. Bruce Edgerton.
C. Dean Gadsden, one of the younger business
men of (Charleston, has built up an important busi-
ness and extensive clientage in real estate, stocks,
bonds and insurance.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
He was born at Charleston, and is a member of
an old and prominent family represented in the
affairs and history of the city for five generations.
His great-grandfather, John Gadsden, was born at
Charleston, son of an Englishman and an early set-
tler in the city. His grandfather was Rev. Chris-
topher Philip Gadsden, founder of St Luke's Epis-
copal Church. He was a native of Charleston and
his chief lifework was in connection with the
churdi which he founded. His father was John
Gadsden, a native of Charleston, a ^aduate of
Washington and Lee University at Lexmgton, Vir-
ginia, and a civil engineer by profession. He died
at the age of fifty-one. John Gadsden married
Mary Joanna Deas, who is still living in Charleston.
Her father was Lieut. Charles Deas, a lieutenant in
the United States Navy, who died while in foreign
service. The Deas familv is of Scotch ancestry.
John Gadsden and wife had six diildren, five of
whom are still living: Christopher Philip, a travel-
ing salesman; Ann Deas, wife of James Adger, of
Charleston; Charles Deas; Mary Porcher, wife of
John P. B. Sinkler, of Philadelphia; and Joanna
Stuart, wife of Joseph E. Jenkins, of Charleston.
Charles Deas Gadsden was educated in the schools
of Charleston and in Porter Military Academy. In
1909 he entered the real estate, stocks, bonds and
insurance business. Mr. Gadsden enlisted in the
navy in 1918 for a term of four years and served
to the time of the armistice, then being transferred
to the reserve list, where he is at present.
In 1917 he married Marie N. Bogert, daughter of
Rev. Harry Howe Bogert of Birdsboro, Pennsylva-
nia. They have a daughter, Marie Bogert. Mr. Gads-
den is a member of the Carolina Yacht Club,
Charleston Country Club, the Masonic order, St.
Andrews Society, and has taken an active part in
public affairs.
CoL. James Henry Claffy. Historically South
Carolina presents an interesting combination of the
conservative and the progressive. The bulk of its
people have steered clear equally from the stand-
pat and reactionary and also from dangerous radi-
calism. Nevertheless some of the most wholesome
movements effecting social and economic life have
received their earliest recognition in South Caro-
lina, and this state has given to such movements
many prominent leaders.
One of the most important units in the proposed
great federation of American agriculture is tbe
Farmers' Union, the president of which for South
Carolina is Col. James Henry Claffy of Orange-
burg. Colonel Claffy is a practical farmer him-
self, but for many years has been a leader in various
movements affecting the best interests of state agri-
culture. He was born at Columbia, in 1858, a son
of James and Eliza (McKenna) Claffy. Both his
father and mother were natives of Ireland. They
came to America some time before the Civil war,
locating at Columbia, and later moving to a farm
at Fort Motte in Orangeburg County.
James Henry Claffy was twelve years old when
his parents moved to the farm at Fort Motte. He
kept his residence in that vicinity until 1893, and
since that year Orangeburg has been his home.
He came by his military title justly. It was dur-
ing the year 1893 that the Darlington rbt occurred,
when a number of the units of the National Guard
of the state refused to obey the orders of the Gov-
ernor, Tillman. Colonel Claffy, with the aid of
several others then organized a company of citi-
zens, numbering seventy-five men, and reported with
them to the Governor within twenty-four hours
after the call for volunteers was made. A perma-
nent or^nization of this company was then per-
fected, Colonel Claffy being commissioned as cap-
tain. He held this position for twenty years,
although his resignation was repeatedly offered. It
was as many times refused, the men refusing to
permit him to sever his connections with the com-
pany. In 19 10 he was elected a major, and after
serving in this capacity for two years was elected
lieutenant-colonel of the Second South Carolina In-
fantry. He served in this capacity until 1916, when
he retired from the service.
Shortly after moving to Orangeburg Colonel
Claffy was elected president of the State Farmers'
Union, and while serving in this capacity organ-
ized the Farmers Union Bank and Trust Company
and served as vice president and cashier for sev-
eral years. He was also the leader in organizing
the Orangeburg County Fair Association, which is
conceded to be the most successful effort ever
made in this direction. Organized in 1910 and cap-
italized at $20,000.00, of which $10,000.00 was paid
in, this association in 1920 has accumulated real
estate valued at $50,000.00 after paying off all in-
debtedness. In the year 1916 he organized the
Orangeburg County Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance
Association, which has been remarkably successful.
Beginning business without a dollar's capitel, at the
end of four years has accumulated a surplus of
$15,000.00 in cash and business to the amount of
$1,500,000.00. In 1919, while president of the Farm-
ers' Union, he was foremost in organizing the
Orangeburg County Marketing Association, which
gave to the farmers of the county "for the first time"
the market price of their products.
Besides being president of the State Farmers'
Union, Colonel Claffy is one of the leaders of the
American Cotton Association. At the organization
of the association at New Orleans in 1919, he was
elected one of the directors from South Carolina.
In December of the same year he was elected vice
president of the South Carolina Division, and also a
member of the State Executive Committee. He is
also president of the Orangeburg County Cotton
Association.
Many conspicuous war activities are to the credit
of Colonel Claffy. He was food administrator in
charge of speeding up production among the farm-
ers of the state, and his work in that role brought
him the especial commendation and a medal from
the Food Administration at Washington. Colonel
Claffy is a prominent democrat and has frequently
been a delegate to state conventions. He is a mem-
ber of the Catholic Church.
He married Miss Mana E. Rickenbaker, of
Orangeburg County. Her mother was a member of
the Elliott family of that County. They have two
daughters, Mana, wife of Dr. B. M. Montgomery,
of Kingstree, and Miss Kathleen Qaffy,
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
123
Samuel Dibble, LL. D., was an eminent lawyer,
a constructive statesman, an educator and scholar,
and none can read the history of South Carolina
and his personal record without realizing how deep-
ly his life was impressed upon that of the state at
large, and his home community of Orangeburg in
particular.
He was born in the City of Charleston, Septem-
ber i6, 1837, and died just seventy-six years later,
September 16, 1913, in a sanitarium near Baltimore,
whither he had gone in the vain hope of recovering
his health. He was a direct descendant in the pa-
ternal line from Thomas Dibble who came from
England to Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1630 and
in 1635 was one of the founders of Windsor, Con-
necticut.
Samuel Dibble was the oldest son of Philander
Virgil and Frances Ann (Evans) Dibble. Philander
and his brother Andrew when young men came from
Bethel, Connecticut, to Charleston and engaged in
business together as hatters. Ann Evans was de-
scended from the Gabeau family gf French
Huguenots and the Henley family of England.
Samuel Dibble acquired his early education in his
native city at the schools of Misses Caroline and
Mary Gray and Mr. John Gray, spent one year in a
common school near his grandfather's farm in the
Town of Bethel, Connecticut, and in 1849 entered
the high school under Henry M. Bruns, the prin-
cipal, and was admitted to the College of Charles-
ton in 1853. He completed his junior course and in
1855 entered Wofford College, where he graduated
A. B. in July, 1856, being the first graduate of that
famed institution, which was then under the presi-
dency of Rev. William M. Wightman, afterward
Bishop Wightman. While at Wofford he was a
membSer of the Calhoun Literary Society. After
forty 3rears of devotion to literary and professional
labors he received the degree LL. D. from his alma
mater. He considered this the highest honor he
ever attained.
. On leaving -college he -taught in Shiloh Academy
and Pine Grove Academy in Orangeburg District
in 1856-57, and was assistant teacher of the Wof-
ford Preparatory Department in the spring of 1858.
Then and during the year 1859 he studied law un-
der Tefferson Choice of Spartanburg, and Lesesne
and Wilkins of Charleston, and was admitted as an
attorney to the law course in December, 1859, and
as a solicitor in equity in 1865, having studied equity
under Hon.^ Charles H. Simonton. In January,
i860, he began the practice of law at Orangeburg.
He was soon called from his office and cases to
a sterner field of duty. January 3, 1861, he volun-
teered as a private in the Edisto Rifles in Col. John-
son Hagood's First Regiment 6f South Carolina
Volunteers. He was with that company throughout
the war, attaining the rank of first lieutenant. The
compaiw later became a part of the Eutaw Regi-
ment, Twenty-Fifth South Carolina Volunteers, un-
der Col. Charles H. Simonton, a part of Hagood's
Brigade, Hokes' Division of the Army of Northern
Virginia.
Toward the close of the war he married, with
the return of peace began the practice of law at
Orangeburg, and in 1867 formed a partnership with
Hon. James F. Izlar under the name Izlar & Dibble.
During his earlier years as a lawyer he also edited
the Orangeburg News. The firm Izlar & Dibble be-
came one of the widest known and strongest legal
firms of the state. The Orangeburg Bar in reso-
lutions passed after the death of Mr. Dibble spoke
of his record as a lawyer in the following words:
**Mr. Dibble studied law as a science and was pro-
foundly versed in its underlying principles. He
argued many notable causes, involving new and dif-
ficult questions and of the gravest importance to
society. When great principles were to be deter-
mined his genius was equal to the task, and when
authorities were to be invoked to sustain that which
already had been settled, he furnished them inex-
haustless store and used them with the skill of a
master. Mr. Dibble was a learned lawyer and
adorned the Bar with the wealth of learning, but as
a distinguished public servant he belongs also to the
state. His conspicuous and valuable services in
public station and in private walk have become. part
of the rich heritage of the state. He was a leader
of men and was ready at all times to do all things
and to dare all things for the public good."
Having ventured his life and his fortune for
the sake of the South in the war, he was equally
ready with all he had to redeem his state from
the wretched conditions of reconstruction. He
was an able lieutenant of Wade Hampton and did
his part in the restoration of white rule. He served
as democratic county chairman of Orangeburg
County in the Seymour and Blair campaign of
1868. When for the protection of the white people
a military company was organized in Orangeburg
County, the Edisto Rifles were reorganized in June,
1876, and he was made captain. He was elected
to the State Legislature as a member of the House
in 1877, and while in that body did good work for
the improvement of the educational resources of the
state. He wa§ elected one of the trustees of the
South Carolina University in 1878, when the vaga-
bond professors and negro students were driven
out. He was chairman of the executive commit-
tee of the South Carolina Agricultural College and
Mechanics Institute for colored students, a branch
of the State University. He was appointed one of
the Board of School Commissioners of Orangeburg
County and formulated the present subdivision of
the county into school districts.
In 1880 Mr. Dibble was a delegate to the National
Democratic Convention that nominated Hancock
and English and was chosen a presidential elector
that year. In 1881, on the death of Hon. Michael
P. O'Connor, member of Congress, he was elected
to the vacancy in the Forty-Seventh Congress and
was subsequently reelected as a democrat for four
more successive terms, serving until the close of
the Fifty-First Congress in 1891, when he declined
reelection and retired to occupy his time with other
interests. He took high rank among the strong men
in Congress and was admittedly among the ablest
men this state sent to the nation's councils.
To his reputation as a lawyer and public leader
he added that of a wise and able business man. He
helped orgaiiize the Edisto Savings Bank, noi;^ the
Edisto National Bank of Orangeburg, was chosen
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
its first president April 3, 1889, and served until
April I, 1902. The Bowman Land and Improvement
Company was organized April 11, 1891, and the
Branchville and Bowman Railroad Company Sep-
tember 6, 1890, Mr. Dibble serving as president of
these institutions.
At this point should be quoted another paragraph
from the resolutions above cited: "Mr. Dibble was
essentially a constructionist. He possessed great
administrative ability and was both a builder and
benefactor. He was a man of broad vision, with
a clear insight into our industrial conditions and
he had the most optimistic faith in the destiny of
this section o^ the state. He appreciated its re-
sources and contributed his capital and talents to
develop them. He evinced the deepest interest in
improved agricultural methods, in the drainage of
our lowlands and in the construction and improve-
ment of the public highways. He developed and
brought into a high state of cultivation a large
area^ of practically abandoned territory in the lower
portion of this county, stimulating the energy of
the people and adding largely to its prosperity. He
established and was chiefly instrumental in build-
ing the thriving town of Bowman, and with his own
means he constructed a railroad from that town
to Branchville in order to give the people of that
section railroad communications with the outside
world. The growing town and the surrounding
country with its prosperous farms and intelligent
citizenship will ever remain a monument to his
genius and energy."
Mr. Dibble joined Shibboleth Lodge No. 28,
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Orangeburg
May 2, 1867, Eureka Chapter No. 13, August 24,
1867, and was high priest of the Royal Arch for
a number of years. He was president of Young
American Steam Fire Engine Company and chief
of the fire department of Orangeburg. He was
township commissioner of Bowman Township during
the latter part of his life, and as such assisted
largely in widening and improving the highways of
the county and state. He was also quite active in
securing to Orangeburg its present railroad facili-
ties; was appointed superintendent of the St. Paul
Methodist Episcopal Sunday School in i860, and
after the war reorganized it and served until April
18, 1879. On his resignation the Methodist Con-
ference passed resolutions thanking him for his long,
intelligent and earnest work as superintendent.
Of other attributes of his mind and character
the Bar Resolutions said: "Mr. Dibble was in no
sense an ordinary man. He possessed many re-
markable characteristics. He was naturally en-
dowed with a strong mind, which he cultivated to
a very high degree. He was possibly the best edu-
cated and most broadly informed man in the county.
Familiar with the classics, a master of several lan-
guages and especially gifted in the higher mathe-
matics, he was deeply cultured in the truest sense."
November 10, 1864, Mr. Dibble was happily mar-
ried to Miss Mary Christiana Louis, of Orange-
burg, daughter of Deopold and Ann Agnes Louis.
Mrs. Dibble, who survived her husband, has been
universally beloved for her admirable character and
charming personality. She is die mother of four
children: Mrs. B. H. Moss, Mrs. W. W. Watson,
Samuel Dibble and Louis V. Dibble.
Samuel Dibble. The name Dibble has long fig-
ured conspicuously in Orangeburg County. The
late Samuel Dibble was a prominent lawyer long
associated with Judge Izlar and other prominent
practitioners -of the Orangeburg bar. He is aJso
remembered for his services in Congress during the
eighties.
A son of Congressman Dibble and his wife, Mary
C. Louis, is Samuel Dibble, Jr., whose work as a
civil engineer has brought him in dose touch with
much of the construction enterprise of the South.
He was born at Orangeburg November 25, 1868,
and was educated in public schools and the Univer-
sity of South Carolina, where he graduated in the
chemistry course in 1890, with the degree B. S.
He has employed his technical ability as an engineer
in connection with the reclamation and development
of large tracts of waste land in Orangeburg County,
and through that work has conferred benefits upon
the present and all future generations. He owns
a large amount of farm property.
At one time he lived at Bowman, South Carolina,
and was one of the city fathers there. In 1898 he
enlisted for the Spanish- American war in the United
States Engineers and served as first lieutenant. He
was in service from May, 1808, until discharged on
May 20, 1899, and part of that time was on duty
in Cuba. Mr. Dibble is unmarried.
Lee a. Klauber. Members of the Klauber fam-
ily have been prominent in mercantile and banking
circles in the southern part of the state for over
forty years. His life and services well entitled Lee
A. Klauber to the rich esteem and veneration in
which his name is held and his memory cherished.
He was the founder of the family in South Caro-
lina. Bom in Bohemia, he located at St. George in
Dorchester County in 1877. His initiative and public
spirit proved a valuable addition to the resources,
of that community. He was a merchant and banker,
and found many opportunities to express his gen-
erous ideals of service to his community and his
fellow men. He was president of the St. Georgfe
Cotton Seed Oil Manufacturing Company, and per-
sonally controlled about 2,000 acres of land at
St. George, some of it in timber and the rest in
cotton and corn. For a number of years he op-
erated a large sawmill a mile and a half from
St. George and cut great quantities of lumber for
the South Carolina and Georgia Railroad.
Lee A. Klauber was a member of the Masonic
lodge and a member of the Jewish Synagogue at
Orange, New Jersey, where he had a brother living.
A sister, Mrs. Louisa Plodkin, is now living at
Atlanta, Georgia. Lee A. Klauber died September
I, 1919. His character and his generosity made him
greatly beloved by all classes of people, both white
and black. Many times he was known to have be-
friended, in a way that amounted to a studious and
customary practice, poor women and their families.
It is said that on the day of his death probably 500
negroes, stricken with grief at their loss, came to
his home.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
125
Lee A. Klauber married Sarah Alice Harbeson,
member of an old South Carolina family of English
and Scotch-Irish ancestry. She was an active mem-
ber of the Methodist Church. Her father, William
I. Harbeson, of St. George, served four years as
a member of the Confederate cavalry during the
war, part of the time under Gen. Joseph E. John-
ston. He was also prominent in his section during
the reconstruction period and served as a member
of the "red shirt" brigade.
Two sons of the late Lee A. Klauber are suc-
cessful South Carolina bankers. One, Robert Lee
Klauber, was born at St. George October 19, 1884.
He was educated in the local public schools, at-
tended The Citadel two years, and also spent two
years, 1901-02, in South Carolina Military Academy.
He finished his education in Sullivan, Creighton &
Smith's Business College, Georgia, in 1903, and at
once returned to St. George and joined his father
in the mercantile business. He is now president of
the L 'A. Klauber Company, a concern whose assets
are rated at over $125,000, and is also president of
the Bank of St. George, the oldest bank in the
community. He is a director in the Farmers Bank
& Trust Company of St. Matthews, is connected
with the Liberty Bank of Charleston, and operates
a thirty horse farm near St. George.
At St. George Robert L. Klauber married Emily
A. Howell. Her father, John J. Howell, was for a
number of years editor of the Dorchester Democrat
and later served as county superintendent of edu-
cation. Mr. and Mrs. R. L. Klauber have two chil-
dren, Katherine and Vivian. Mr. Klauber is a
Mason, and while never active politically served a
term as a member of the Town Council. Fishing
and hunting are his favorite recreations and he is a
great lover and a judge of dogs and for several
years has maintained a fine kennel.
William Adolph Klauber, the other son, who for
the past eighteen years has been a banker and mer-
chant at Bamberg, was bom at St. George February
17, 1882. He was liberally educated, attending the
common schools and the St. George High School,
and graduated from South Carolina's famous mil-
itary school The Citadel with the class of 1902.
Soon after completing his education he came to
Bamberg and engaged in merchandising, and is still
active head of a large business in that line. On
January 28, 1920, he bought the interests of the
former president of the Enterprise Bank of Bam-
berg, and at once reorganized, taking in a number
of prominent men of Bamberg as his associates and
securing a new charter under the name of the First
National Bank of Bamberg. The change in name
and management became effective May 7, 1920. The
officers of the bank are: W. A. Klauber, president;
Dr. Robert Black, vice president; W. D. Coleman,
cashier; while the directors are Aaron Rice, Dr.
George F. Hair, C. J. S. Brooker, Dr. Robert Black,
G. A. Ducker, Dr. F. B. McCracken, W. D. Cole-
man. D. C. Crum, T. D. Copeland, W. E. Free,
Dr. J. B. Black and W. A. Klauber— all men of the
highest standing in that community.
Mr. Klauber is also a director in the Bank of St.
George and is vice president of the Citizens Build-
ing and Loan Association and a director in the
Bamberg Realty Company.
In recent years he has also taken much part in
local and state politics, and was one of the leading
supporters of Governor Manning's aspirations for
the gubernatorial office. He served four years on ,
the staff of the governor as lieutenant colonel. Fra-
ternally he is affiliated with Oman Lodge No. 38,
Free and Accepted Masons.
Febmary 22, 1903, Mr. Klauber married at St.
. George Murchy Judy, a native of that community.
Her father is Dr. Perry M. Judy, of St. George, of
an old colonial family of English and Irish de-
scent. Her grandfather was a surgeon and lieu-
tenant colonel in the Confederate army. Mr. and
Mrs. Klauber have three children, Louis A., Perry
McSwain and William A., Jr.
S. Oliver O'Bryan. How large a place an able
and hard working young lawyer may fill in a com-
munity's activities is well exemplified in the career
of S, Oliver O'Bryan of Manning.
A graduate of the law department of the Uni-
versity of South Carolina in 1905, he began general
practice in Manning the same year. He has served
as city councilman, county attomey, is present city
attorney of Manning, is a Imstec of the Manning
graded schools, and since 1914 has been chairman
of the democratic party of Clarendon County. Dur-
ing the war he was chairman of the County War
Savings Stamps Committee, a member of the Coun-
cil of Defense, chairman of the Legal Advisory
Board, chairman of the Home Section of the Red
Cross and active in every other war cause. He is
superintendent of the Sunday school, president for
several years of the Sunday School Association, and
an active member of the Presbyterian Church.
Mr. O'Bryan was born in Clarendon County, July
28, 1883, a son of William M. and Mary Gertrude
(Oliver) 0'Br3ran. He was educated in the com-
mon schools, in the Presbyterian College at Colum-
bia, in Clemson College preparatory to his law
course. In 1906 he became associated as a part-
ner with Judge John S. Wilson under the name
Wilson & O'Bryan. In 1907 Mr. Wilson was elected
to the bench and since that date Mr. O'Bryan has
been associated with Robert O. Purdy, under the
firm name of Purdy & O'Bryan. Mr. O'Bryan is
a director of the First National Bank of Manning,
president of the Bank of Paxville, and president
of the Manning Ice & Light Company. He is a
Royal Arch Mason and a Past Chancellor Com-
mander of the Knights of Pythias, a member of
the Eastern Star and the Woodmen of the World.
June 28, 191 1, he married Frances Davis of Man-
ning, a daughter of J. Elbert and Sarah Rawlinson
Davis. Her father is a former sheriff of Clar-
endon County. Mr. and Mrs. O'Bryan have four
children: William, Leila, Samuel Oliver and
Eugenia.
George Felder Hair. The Hairs are an old and
prominent family of the old Barnwell district.
While farming has always been a dominant interest
in the family, the present generation is numerously
represented in the professions, several of the sons
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
having been physicians or dentists, including
Dr. George Felder Hair, who for twenty years has
been a resident of Bamberg and is a former pres-
ident of the State Dental Society.
The remote ancestry of the Hairs is German,
though members of the family have lived in the
South since colonial times. The late Judson E. Hair
was born in Barnwell County June 30, 1847, and
died June 16, 1919. He was a student in the Uni-
versity of Georgia at Athens when the war between
the states broke out, and he and the other jnembers
of his class volunteered and went to Charleston to
enter the Confederate service. He was with Lee's
army for eleven months, and was a musician in the
band. His mature years were spent as a farmer and
merchant in and around Blackville. He was one of
the prominent Baptist laymen, being one of the
founders and leaders of the church at Blackville and
a deacon. Judson E. Hair married Maggie Capres
Felder, who was born near Branchville, South Caro-
lina, in 1850, and is still living at Blackville. When
she was a small girl her father died as a result of
hardship and exposure endured while a Confederate
soldier. The family of Judson E. Hair and wife
comprised twelve children, seven of whom are liv-
ing: Lorena Blanch, who was married to Thomas
J. Martin, of Anderson, in 1886; Dr. George F.;
Arthur B., a hardware merchant and farmer at
Blackville; John Pinckney, deceased; Joseph Koger,
deceased ; Dr. Isaac Murray Hair, a dentist at Spar-
tanburg; Dr. Harry B., also a dentist practicing at
Columbia; Mary E., deceased; Mrs. D. D. Walters,
of Columbia ; Mrs. Maggie E. Still and Mrs. Abigail
Sanders, of Blackville; and Dr. Judson E., deceased.
Of the younger generation some mention should be
made of the two sons of Mrs. Lorena Blanch Mar-
tin, of Anderson. These sons, Haskell Hair and
Rhett Felder Martin, are both married, but when
the war came on and they were called in the draft
they claimed no exemption. The older went over-
seas as a lieutenant, and saw much of the front
line service with the Expeditionary Forces. He
was at Chateau Thierry and other historic points
on the French front. He is now practicing as an
architect at Greenville. The other, Rhett Felder
Martin, who is in the coal and wood business at
Anderson, was on a transport bound for France
when the armistice was signed, and the boat was
then turned about and landed him in America. Earl
Walters, a son of Mrs. D. D. Walters, of Columbia,
was a volunteer at the age of eighteen in the World
war and was overseas with the first forces sent to
France and remained throughout the war. He was
a sergeant and participated in all the important en-
gagements of the Expeditionary Forces. Like all
the others he had many narrow escapes from death,
but he escaped without a mark.
George Felder Hair, who was born at Blackville
October 31, 1870, was liberally educated, attending
the common and high schools of his native town,
graduated in a business course at Newark, New
Jersey, in 1888, and during the following year was
employed by the S. S. White Dental Manufacturing
Company at Staten Island, New York. This experi-
ence aroused his interest in the dental profession
and he entered the oldest dental college in the
world, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery,
where he was graduated with the class of 1892.
Doctor Hair practiced at Anderson for ten years,
and since 1901 has been busy in his profession at
Bamberg. He has filled all the important offices in
the State Dental Society, including the office of
president, and is now a member of the State Board
of Dental Examiners. He is also affiliated with
the National Dental Society. Doctor Hair is a Scot-
tish Rite Mason and Shriner, also a member of the
Knights of Pythias, Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, Woodmen of the World and Improved Or-
der of Red Men. He has never been active in pol-
itics, and is a leader in the Baptist Church at Bam-
berg, being a deacon and a teacher in its Sunday
school. On May 5, 1892, he married Miss Leila E.
Boylston, of Blackville. Her father is a veteran ex-
Confederate soldier, George W. Boylston, for many
years a prominent citizen of Blackville. Doctor and
Mrs. Hair have two children. Blanche, the daugh-
ter, is the wife of J. J. Cudd, a financier and
farmer at Spartanburg. The son, P. Belton Hair,
received his A. B. degree from Furman University
at Greenville, and while there served as a volunteer
for three months in the Students Army Corps until
the signing of the armistice. He is now in his third
year of the Atlanta Dental College of Georgia, pre-
paring for the profession in which his father and
some of his uncles have done such distinguished
work.
Arthur Byron Hair. A Blackville business man
and planter of long standing and successful and
influential connections, Arthur Byron Hair is a
member of the old and prominent Hair family in
that section of South Carolina, being a son of
Judson E. Hair.
He was born near Blackville June 22, 1872, and
acquired a liberal education. After common and
private school instruction he entered Furman Uni-
versity at Greenville, and in 1893 graduated from
Sullivan & Crichton's Business College at Atlanta,
Georgia. While there he became proficient in
shorthand, and when soon afterward he entered
Clemson College, in addition to his regular studies
he acted as secretary to the president, E. B. Craig-
head. Mr. Hair left Clemson in 1895, and for a
year was bookkeeper for a mercantile house at
Pelzer.
In 1896, nearly a quarter of a century ago, he
engaged in the hardware business at Blackville, and
has been in that line ever since, his time beinj?
divided between his store and his extensive farming
interests. Mr. Hair owns and supervises a twenty-
horse farm near Blackville. He does farming on
a diversified scale, dividing his fields among cotton,
peanuts, corn, and small grains, with some aspara-
gus and garden truck.
So far as his business duties would permit,
Mr. Hair has accepted those community responsi-
bilities thrust upon him by his fellow citizens. For
ten years he was an alderman of Blackville and
has been mayor of the town two terms. He has
served as school trustee for ten years and for the
past four years has been president of die board. He
is a deacon in the Baptist church and for twenty
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
127
years has been secretary and treasurer of its Sun-
day school. Fraternally he is affiliated with the
Masonic order.
In 1898 Mr. Hair married Cornelia Ada Rush,
daughter of C. C. Rush of Blackville. By this
union he is the father of six children, Arthur
Byron, Jr., and David Harold, both students of
Clemson College, James, John Pinckney, Charles
and Elizabeth. Mr. Hair married for his second
wife Dot Hamel, of Kershaw, on June 24, 1915.
They have one son, George Hamel Hair.
RiCH.\RD Lee Robinson, D. D., entered upon his
duties as president of the Woman's College of Due
West July I, 1910, just after the college had fitly
celebrated its semi-centennial anniversary. Doctor
Robinson is now in the tenth year of his presidency,
and has guided the affairs of the institution with
wisdom and energy to a record of results and
achievement that justify the institution in the
modem life of South Carolina as fully as at any
time in the previous history of the college.
This college, one of the oldest for the higher
education of women in South Carolina, has an
interesting history. Two ministers of the Associate
Reformed Presbyterian Church, Rev. John I. Bonner
and Rev. Jonathan Galloway, conceived the idea
of a school in which young women should have
equal educational advantages with young men. In
a conference between these two ministers and Rev.
R. C. Grier in 1859 the first plans were proposed,
and in the same year a board of trustees was elected.
This board took over a girl's academy, previously,
directed by Miss Elizabeth McQuerns, and the col-
lege was opened in the academy building January
8, i860, with Rev. J. I. Bonner as the first president
of the school. The cornerstone of the first college
building was laid August 7, i860, and the first class^
five in number, graduated in i8i5i. Doctor Bonner
was president of the Due West Female College,
which it was originally called, until his death April
29, 1881. "He lived and worked for it with all the
energy of his nature. It was the center of all his
plans and the unfailing stimulus to his ceaseless
toil. He was one of that noble group of educators
who rendered such splendid service to the South
after the terrible Civil war, a group containing such
names as Robert Calvin Grier, James H. Carlisle,
John Maurice Webb, John Bunyan Shearer and
William Moffatt Grier." Succeeding Doctor Bonner
in the presidency came John P. Kennedy, who had
been a professor in the college since 1866 and who
remained as president until April, 1887, and faith-
fully carried on the ideals and plans of his prede-
cessor. For eight years Mrs. L. M. Bonner was
principal, and in June, 1895, Rev. C. E. Todd was
elected president, to be succeeded by Rev. James
Boycc in 1899. Doctor Boyce was president for
ten years, and during his administration the owner-
ship and control of die college was transferred from
a joint stock company to the Associate Reformed
Presbyterian Church. Doctor Boyce died January
27, loio, and was then succeeded by Dr. Richard
Lee Robinson.
"During the first half century of its history the
college enrolled over 4,000 students and sent out
1,030 graduates. They are to be found in every
Southern state and in some of the Western and
Northern states. Some have gone to the mission
fields of Egypt, Mexico, Japan, China and India.
Wherever they have gone their hands and heads
and hearts have been freely given for every good
work."
Richard Lee Robinson was born at Lancaster,
South Carolina, October 31, 1872, a son of Nathaniel
Pressly and Agnes Elizabeth (Lathan) Robinson.
He is of Scotch ancestry on both sides. His paternal
grandmother was a Craig. The Craigs, Robinsons
and Lathans are all well known families of South
Carolina. Doctor Robinson received his A. B. degree
from Erkine College at Due West in 1892, and was
awarded the degree Doctor of Divinity in 191 2. For
four years after leaving college he was teacher and
principal of high schools and in 1899 he graduated
from Princeton Theological Seminary. In the same
year he was ordained a minister of the Associate
Reformed Presbyterian Church, and for the next
ten years served as pastor of the church at Camden,
Alabama. During 1909-10 he was pastor at his home
town of Lancaster, and from that post was called
to the presidency of the Woman's College.
December 22, 1903, Doctor Robinson married Miss
Anna Marshall, of Millersburg, Kentucky. She is
a graduate of the Millersburg College and Dean of
the Woman's College of Due West.
John Cart from the age of fifteen has been iden-
tified with the cotton business and for nearly thirty
years has been located at Orangeburg.
Mr. Cart was born at Charleston May 5, 1866, a
son of Francis G. and Annie M. (Gray) Cart. His
father was both a cotton planter and factor. The
son, who was educated in the public schools of
Charleston and Porter Military Academy, at the
age of fifteen entered business and since 1891 has
been a resident of Orangeburg, where he established
himself in the cotton buying business. He is a mem-
ber of the Episcopal Church
In 1891 he married Pauline Gervais Prentiss,
daughter of Dr. Christopher J. and Pauline Gervais
(Miller) Prentiss. Her father was a prominent
Charleston physician, Mr. and Mrs. Cart have
three children: Pauline Gervais, wife of Charles
Matthews Lindsay, a graduate of The Citadel, who'
served as a major during the World war; John, Jr.,
a graduate of The Citadel at Charleston and served
in France as first lieutenant of the Three Hundred
and Thirty-fifth Infantry; and Gladys, wife of Wil-
liam Clifton Wallace, who is also a graduate of The
Citadel and is a lieutenant in the United States
Navy.
Rudolph Siegung. When in 1919 the Siegling
Music House of Charleston celebrated the centen-
nial anniversary of its founding, emphasis was very
properly placed upon the artistic quality as well as
the commercial feature of the achievement. There
are a number of strictly commercial establishments
that have existed longer than the Siegling Music
House, but this business, established in 1819 at
Charleston, not only makes good its claim as the
oldest music house in America but also as the cen-
ter from which have radiated many of the choicest
influences affecting the musical and artistic life of
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
the South. It would be a serious omission, indeed,
not to include the Siegling Music House as one of
the most patent factors in the history of South Caro-
lina culture.
The founder of this business was John Siegling,
who was born in Erfurt, Germany, in 1789. His
father was an eminent mathematician, who included
among his scholars the great scientist Humboldt.
More remotely the family ancestry goes back to
John Siegling, a Saxon knight, who was one of the
six knights chosen to protect Luther in his retire-
ment in the Wartburg.
John Siegling decided at the early age of seven-
teen to leave his home for another land where he
could support himself and relieve his parents. His
first experience in the business world was in Paris
in 1809. With no assistance save his sterling charac-
ter and abilities he entered the services of Messrs.
Erard Brothers, manufacturers of musical instru-
ments, in their large factory where they employed
several hundred workmen. Possessing great me-
chanical skill and proficiency and having a passion
for music, he was soon promoted to a prominent
position, and equally as soon acquired the trust and
confidence of the Erards, his employers. In 1780 the
Erards constructed the first piano, the first instru-
ment of the kind manufactured in France. Later
they produced their first double movement harp,
and in 1823 crowned their work by producing their
model grand piano forte.
John Sickling remained with the Erards for ten
years, first m Paris and then in London and Dublin
to establish and manage branches of this firm. He
always felt that he owed much to the Erards for his
success in business life.
It was a choice between two alternatives that led
John Siegling to America. When he was in readi-
ness to start for foreign lands he found two ves-
sels sailing, one for St. Petersburg, Russia, and
the other for Charleston, South Carolina. The lat-
ter obtained his decision as being more promising
in its destination. He embarked for Charleston in
September, 1819. At that time Charleston was one
of the largest cities in commercial importance in the
United States. On his arrival he decided to locate
and quickly took out papers of naturalization and
became an American citizen.
In November, 1819, his first place of business was
located on the south side of Broad Street, nearly
opposite the Court House — a large brick building
which was demolished for postotnce grounds and
park. It was next moved to the southeast corner
of Broad and King streets, where he established a
house for the importation of musical instruments.
In 1828 his establishment was moved from King and
Broad streets to tlie southwest comer of Meeting
and Horlbecks Alley. From there it was moved in
1830 to the southwest corner of King and Beaufain
streets, where the present Siegling Music House
stands. At the same time a branch house was
established in Havana, Cuba. The original store at
that location was .destroyed by fire April 27, 1838,
but a new and the present building was completed
in the fall of 1839.
For nearly half a century John Siegling was the
business genius who guided this establishment and
not only extended its trade but inspired it with the
ideals which have been so carefully cherished by his
successors. Hundreds of the grand pianos and other
musical instruments that contributed to the culture
and gaiety of many of the best homes in the Caro-
linas in ante-bellum days were bought directly from
the Siegling Music House at Charleston.
John Siegling died in 1867, at the age of seventy-
eight. He married after coming to Charleston Mary
Schneli, whose brother was a mayor of Charleston
in the early part of the last century.
Many South Carolinians will recall the fame that
attended the career of a daughter of John Siegling,
Mary Regina Siegling, who was born in Charleston
in 1824 and died at London in December, 1919, just
a few days before her ninety-fifth anniversary. She
became the wife of Edward Schuman-Leclercq.
Mrs. Leclercq had a long and distinguished career
as a musician. She sang as a soloist in Ole Bull's
concerts when that great musican was a young man,
and appeared in concert in New York, Havana and
most of the European capitals. She was intellec-
tually gifted as well as a wonderful musician and
enjoyed delightful associations and friendships with
notable personages over a period of three-quarters
of a century both in Europe and America, Her
reminiscences in the volume "Memoirs of a Dow-
ager," written by her in later years, is a fascinating
account of an artistic career, and has had a host of
readers both in America and abroad. The volume
is naturally greatly prized by members of the Sieg-
lipg family.
The successor of John Siegling as head of the
Siegling Music House was his second son, Henry
Siegling, who was born February 13, 1829. While
he never served such a long technical apprentice-
ship as did his father, he was in every other respect
as well qualified as his father to conduct the grow-
ing business. He was a man of excellent taste and
judgment on artistic matters, and was true to the
best mercantile ideals, placing all the resources of
his house behind its merchandise, and making the
name Siegling sjmonymous with reliability, confi-
dence, sincerity and honesty. Henry Siegling died
May 28, 1905, at the age of seventy-six, and it was
his good fortune that the great business conducted
by him for nearly forty years be left in the capable
hands of his sons. When fourteen years later the
centennial of the business was celebrated the man-
agement of the Siegling Music House was in the
hands of the following executives: Rudolph Sieg-
ling, president and treasurer; Henry Siegling, vice
president; John A. Siegling, secretary; and J. For-
rest Greer, who for over forty years had been with
the firm as manager.
To describe the wares that have been handled and
sold by the Siegling House during a century would
be in the nature of an inventory of musical mer-
chandise and tastes with the striking contrast pre-
sented by the historic spinets and harpsichords and
the modern talking machines. During this period
the Siegling House has figured not only as import-
ers but also as manufacturers of musical instru-
ments and music publishers. John Siegling began
importing pianofortes from London as early as
1820, .and he personally brought over the first harp
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
129
ever imported to America, and he was also the first
importer of band instruments to the United States.
During the war between the states under stress of
patriotic necessity John Sie^ling diverted his arti-
sans from their regular duties to the manufacture
of drums for the Confederate forces.
A happily worded tribute to this firm is found in
an editorial in the columns of the News and G>urier
of November 19, 1919: "The celebration tonight by
the Siegling Music House of the one hundredth an-
niversary of its establishment in Charleston is an
event of general interest. In this new country there
are not many business establishments which have
survived the vicissitudes of so long a time. The
Siegling Music House is the oldest music store in
America.
"A history of the Siegling Music House would
make entertaining reading, we are sure, and would
go far toward reflecting the musical atmosphere
and musical development of Charleston and of
South Carolina throughout the period of its ex-
istence. Its founder, John Siegling, had had his
training with Sebastien Erard, the celebrated French
manufacturer of musical instruments who was dis-
tinguished especially for the improvements he made
upon the harp and the pianoforte, and whose repu-
tation was world-wide. The importations which
John Siegling made of fine musical instruments of
all kinds from Europe, as illustrated in the adver-
tisements which he published in the newspapers of
that day, are an index to the wealth and culture that
existed in Charleston in 1819 and the years fol-
lowing.
*The Siegling Music House has never been con-
tent with the selling of musical instrinnents. From
the time of its establishment it has contributed al-
ways to the maintenance and development of sound
musical ideals in Charleston, and it has always been
one of the citv's musical centers. The business
methods of its founder won for it the confidence of
the community and his successors have so conducted
its affairs as to retain that confidence in a worthy
manner. The News and Courier joins with music
lovers and the public generally in extending its con-
gratulations on the celebration which it holds today
and in wishing for it a long career of ever widen-
ing usefulness and prosperity."
The late Henry Siegling married Miss Kate Pat-
rick, whose father was Doctor Patrick, a prominent
dentist of Charleston, and who had several sons
also eminent in that profession.
Mr. Rudolph Siegling, now president and treas-
urer of the Siegling Music House, was born in
Charleston in 1878 and was educated at Nazareth
Hall, Nazareth, Pennsylvania. He was only sixteen
years of age when he became an employe of the
music house, and at first was assig^ned such duties
as carrying bundles. His association has now been
continuous for a quarter of a century and since the
death of his father in 1905 he has been the active
executive head.
Rudolph Siegling married Fannie Odell DeMars,
of Orangeburg, South Carolina. Their two children
are Rudolph Siegling, Jr., and Charles Casimir
Siegling.
Mr. Siegling is a member of the Charleston
Vol. V— 9
Chamber of Commerce, and is also vice president of
the Retail Merchants Association. He is secretary
and treasurer of St. John's Lutheran Sunday School
and, as a member of the Masonic fraternity, has
served as senior warden of Union Kilwinning
Lodge No. 4.
Frank Young Pressly, D. D. Quite recently
Doctor Pressly, president of the Erskine TheologicaU
Seminary, rounded out forty-five years of continuous
and efficient work as a minister, educator and leader
in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.
In educational and religious circles he is one of the
distinguished men of the state.
He was born at Due West in Abbeville County
January 18, 1853, son of James Patterson and Maiy
(Young) Pressly. His grandfather was David
Pressly. David Pressly was an uncle of Dr. Ebe-
nezer E. Pressly, first president of Erskine College.
James Patterson Pressly was also an educator and
a clergyman of the Associate Reformed Presby-
terian Church, and was connected in an official and
teaching capacity with Ers]cine College and Erskine
Theological Seminary from 1842 until his death in
1877.
Frank Young Pressly grew up from childhood
in the atmosphere of the old college town of Due
West, was graduated from Erskine College in 1871,
following which he took the Seminary course and
was licensed by the Second Presbytery September
20, 1873. The following winter he spent in the
United Presbyterian Theological Seminary at Al-
legheny, Pennsylvania, following which he did
preaching in the Ohio A. R. P. Presbytery, and in
October, 1874, was ordained by the Second Pres-
bytery. From October, 1874, to September, 1876,
he was stated supply at Mount Zion Church, Auburn,
Missouri, for four years did missionary work in
Louisville, Kentucky, and from 1880 to 1886 was
pastor of Mount Zion Church. He was pastor at
Starkville, Mississippi, from 1886 to 1890 and while
there taught in the Agricultural and Mechanical
College. Returning to his native state he was stated
•supply of Abbeville from 1890 to 18J4. In 1893 the
Synod elected him Professor of Creek and Ger-
man in Erskine College, and he entered upon the
duties of that office a year later. In November,
1899, he accepted the presidency of Erskine Col-
lege, and filled that office until 1907, since which
date he has been president of the Erskine Theolog-
ical Seminary.
He has held many other offices and performed
numerous duties for the advancement of his church,
college and home community and people. He was
moderator of the Synod in 1893 and at Due West
has served as member of the Board of Trustees
of the local school district, as intendant of the town,
and has handled a heavy burden of administrative
and civic duties. The Doctor of Divinity degree
was conferred upon him by Westminster College in
Pennsylvania in 1896, and the degree of Doctor of
Laws by the University of South Carolina in 1903.
Capt. Lionel K. Legge. While Captain Legge
was qualified for and began practice as a lawyer at
Charleston six years ago, nearly three years of that
time were devoted more or less actively to military
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
duties. Captain Legge went overseas with one of
the units of South Carolina troops in 1918, and did
not return to this country and resume his practice
until the middle of 1919.
Captain Legge was born in Charleston in 1889, son
of Claude L. and Elizabeth J. (Hutchinson) Legge,
the former a native of Spartanburg County and the
latter of Summerville, South Carolina. His father,
who was an educator, died at Charleston in 191 3.
A younger brother of Captain Legge is Lieut.-Col.
Barnwell Rhett Legge, a graduate of The Citadel,
and received a commission as second lieutenant in
the regular army before the beginning of the war
with Germany. He was promoted through suc-
cessive ranks as first lieutenant, captain, major to
lieutenant-colonel and with that rank is still in the
army. He was with the Expeditionary Forces in
France and for his services overseas won both
American and French decorations, and was one of
the first southern men to be given the French Le-
gion of Honor.
Lionel K. Legge received his education in Charles-
ton, graduating from Charleston College with the
class of 1909. The next three years he taught school
in Georgetown and Charleston, South Carolina,
after which he studied law in the office of Smythe &
Visanka, and was admitted to the bar in 1913.
He received his preliminary military training as a
member of the old National Guard in Troop 6, later
Troop A of the South Carolina Cavalry. Soon
after America entered the war with Germany he
went to the First Officers Training Camp at Fort
Oglethorpe, receiving a commission as captain. Fol-
lowing that he was on duty at Camp Jackson and
Camp Sevier, and in the summer of 1918 went over-
seas with the Eighty-first or Wildcat Division. He
served as regimental adjutant and operations officer
on the staff of the Three Hundred and Twenty-
fourth Regiment, and saw active duty during the
last phase of the great Meuse-Argonne campaign.
For g;allantry and bravery under fire he received
his citation and after the armistice remained
abroad until the spring of 1919.
Prior to his war servjce Captain Legge was a*
member of the successful law firm of Legge &
Allan at Charleston, and returned home to resume
his relations* with the same firm and find his pres-
tige as a lawyer undiminished by his absence. Cap-
tain Legge is post commander of Charleston Post
of the American Legion. He is a member of the
Episcopal Church.
MiLLEDGE Lorenzo Bonham Sturkey. A great
deal of interesting local history might be told in-
cidental to the career of Mr. Sturkey, the pioneer
merchant and leading citizen of the town of McCor-
mick. He and his brothers were the first mer-
chants in that town, and for over thirty-five years
his influence has been one of the chief factors in
molding the commercial,. civic and social standards
of the community.
Mr. Sturkey, who recently retired from active
business as a merchant, was born only a mile from
the present town of McCormick, then in Edgefield
County, in 1861, son of Jefferson and Lucy (Self)
Sturkey. His great-grandfather Sturkey was a
native of Alsace Lorraine, France, and with three
brothers came to America in 1766. A number of
the descendants of these brothers are still found
in Lexington and Orangeburg counties. The fam-
ily was established in Edgefield County by Jeffer-
son Sturkey.
Mr. M. L. B. Sturkey grew up on a farm, and
he owns the land today on which he was born.
When he was six years of age the family moved
to Lincoln County, Georgia, where he attended
school and where he lived until 1882.
The town of McCormick was established in 1882.
In that year Mr. Sturkey returned to his native
community and the following year established his
permanent home at McCormick. Associated with
his brothers he engaged in business. They were the
pioneer merchants, and now after more than a third
of a century has passed it is especially interesting
to note that they were the dominant influence where-
by McCormick was incorporated as a **dry" town,
being the first village incorporation to prohibit the
sale of liquor in South Carolina. It was through
the influence of the same men that Edgefield County
was freed from the evils of the old dispensary
saloons.
In 1887 M. L. B. Sturkey engaged in business for
himself, and until 1918 he had a large trade over
an extensive territory in hardware, groceries, farm
implements, wagons and buggies and other supplies.
Though he has not been a merchant since August,
1918, he is still a planter and cotton buyer.
Mr. Sturkey, as this record faintly indicates, is a
man of progressive character, of advanced and mod-
ern thought, and wherever possible has lent his in-
fluence to securing practical results in behalf of
national and local welfare. His prohibition aim and
attitude is a matter of record, and he has long been
an advocate of woman's suffrage. He rearwl and
educated his children for practical and serious pur-
poses of life.
Mr. Sturkey is one of the few citizens of the
present McCormick County who can claim an active
share in the first agitation for the creation of that
new county. He was allied with the movement
nearly a quarter of a century ago. He was one of
the two delegates that went to the Constitutional
Convention at Columbia in 1895 to present the wis-
dom of creating a new county from portions of old
Edgefield, Abbeville and Greenwood counties.
Nothing came of the movement at that time, but
Mr. Sturkey did not neglect opportunities to keep
the subject alive during the twenty years that fol-
lowed until the new county was finally created in
1916.
Mr. Sturkey has been four times married. There
were no children by his first two wives, who were
sistcFs, Fannie and Mary Willingham, of Lincoln
County, Georgia. His third wife was Miss Annie
Martin, and she was the mother of four daughters:
Mary F., Marian E., Bertha C. and Wessie. By
his present wife. Miss Lucy Anderson, daughter of
P. H. Anderson, of Waterloo, South Carolina, Mr.
Sturkey has three children : Lucy Harriet, M. L. B.,
Jr., and Annie Laurie. tAr. Sturkey would never
consent to accept office, although tendered him many
times.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
131
Julian Booth Salley. A lawyer at Aiken and a
citizen whose career has been attended both with
material prosperity and dignified service, Julian
Booth Salley is a member of the old and prominent
Salley family which has been in South Carolina for
upwards of two centuries.
He was born in Orangeburg County March 23,
1878, near the Town of Salley in Aiken County.
His ancestor Henry Salley settled in South Carolina
in 1735. A son of this pioneer was John Salley,
who commanded a company in the Revolutionary
war. Other members of the family have been prom-
inent in the professions, as planters and public
officials.
The father of Julian Booth Salley was Capt
Henry H. Salley, who was born near the Town of
Salley, and served all through the war between the
states as captain of Company I of the Twenty-sec-
ond Regiment of Infantry. He was wounded seven
times, and for many years suffered from these
wounds, but lived until 1893. He also took a prom-
inent part in the campaign for the restoration of
white rule in the reconstruction era. His life was
spent as a planter. Captain Salley married Mar-
garet Elizabeth Corley, who is still living at the old
homestead at Salley, near which place she was
bom. Her people were of English descent and of
! Revolutionary stock.
Julian Booth Salley was educated in The Citadel
at Charleston, took his law course in the University
of South Carolina in 1903, and soon afterward had
achieved his first successes as a young lawyer at
I Aiken. He has built up a large general law prac-
tice, which he still carries on. He is also a director
of the Bank of Western Carolina and a director of
the Real Estate Fidelity Company.
Mr. Salley served as mayor of Aiken from 1904
to 1910, for three successive terms, and has been a
delegate to numerous county and state conventions
of the democratic party.
His professional and other interests were com-
pletely subordinated during the period of the World
war to the various services imposed upon him in his
community. He was county chairman of the regis-
trars, registering men under the draft and organ-
izing the country districts, was also county chair-
man of the Exemption Board, was county chairman
I for the Thrift Stamp campaign and a leader in all
the Liberty Loan and Red Cross drives. The gov-
ernor also appointed him an examiner of county
boards of exemption. Just before the armistice Mr.
Salley registered for the draft, and waived exemp-
tion on any ground.
December 20, 1906, Mr. Salley married Eulalie
Chafee, a native of Aiken and a daughter of the
late G. K, Chafee. She is of English and French
ancestry and of colonial and revolutionary stock.
They have two children, Eulalie and Julian, Jr.,
both attending school at Aiken.
Daniel Alfred Jackson Bell, M. D. Doctor Bell
has a record of thirty years of honest, self-denying
' and skilful professional work, divided between two
communities, Parksville, where he had his home
I for nearly a quarter of a century, and for the past
six years at McCormick, county seat of McCormick
County.
Doctor Bell has been a valuable man outside of
his professioij to his present community. He was
one of the me^ who worked earnestly to bring about
the establishment oi the present county of McCor-
mick. He employed his ability as a writer to pro-
mote publicity work through various newspapers
of the state in behalf of the organization of the new
county. He is author of a number of articles on
the history of those sections of Edgefield, Abbeville
and Greenwood counties that are now comprised in
the new county of McCormick.
Doctor Bell was born at Pleasant Lane in Edge-
field County in i860, a son of J. Milton and Martha
(Faulkner) Bell. His great-grandfather, John Bell,
a native of Scotland, on coming to America settled
in Pennsylvania and died there. The doctor's grand-
father, Isaac Bell, subsequently moved to Edgefield
County.
Doctor Bell spent his early life on a farm. His
youth coincided with the period in which South
Carolina and the entire South were suffering from
the eflfects of the war, and the resources of his
family did not avail him beyond the meager oppor-
tunities of the common country schools. He spent
several years teaching in order to earn money for
his medical education. He was twenty-nine years
of age and had married when he completed his
medical course. He graduated from the University
of Georgia at Augusta in 1889, and the same year
began practice at Parksville, where he lived for
twenty-four years. In 1913 he moved to McCor-
mick, and three years later had the satisfaction of
seeing that town established as the county seat of
McCormick County. While at Parksville he served
as intendant or mayor and was a member of the
town council for eighteen years. Doctor Bell has
also been in the drug business at McCormick. Dur-
ing the war he was county food administrator and
member of the Volunteer Medical Reserve Corps.
Doctor Bell is a Baptist, having joined the old
Mountain Creek Baptist Church when seventeen
years old. He was soon elected superintendent of,
its Sunday school, since which time he has been
continuously in the work either as superintendent or
teacher. His family were religiously inclined, his
grandfather, Isaac Bell, having only four grandsons
by the name of Bell, three of whom were deacons
in the Baptist Church and the fourth a distinguished
Baptist preacher. Doctor Bell was made a deacon in
his twenty-eighth year, and has served in the sev-
eral communities in which he has lived, always
moving his membership to the nearest Baptist
Church. He is now a leader in the McCormick
Baptist Church, having contributed liberally to the
new fifty thousand dollar church building in process
of erection.
Doctor Bell married Miss Mamie Middleton, of
Edgefield County. They have an interesting fam-
ily of six children: John Milton; Nettie, wife of
T. R. Cartledge ; Addie, wife of Lieut. James Parks p
Sergt. Dan A. Bell, who was in the Medical Re-
serve Corps; Eddie Bell, who was also with the-
Expeditionary Forces for several months; and
Miss Martha Bell, who graduated from the
Woman's College at Due West in 1920. Doctor Bell
,
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
has been a strong prohibitionist all his life, and
worked for the success of its becoming a law.
William Marion Steinmeyer. The County of
Beaufort numbers among its citizens many skill-
ful physicians, lawyers of state ♦repute, well-
known manufacturers and business men of more
than local reputation. While proud of them, she
is not lacking in others who have achieved
distinction in callings requiring intellectual abil-
ities of a high order. Among the latter Wil-
liam M. Steinmeyer, of Beaufort, the popular
and efficient superintendent of education, occu-
pies a deservedly conspicuous place. No one
IS more entitled to the thoughtful considera-
tion of a free and enlightened people than he who
shapes and directs the minds of the young, adds to
the value of their intellectual treasures and moulds
their characters. This is pre-eminently the mission
of the faithful and conscientious teacher, and to
such noble work is the life of the subject of this
revtew devoted.
William Marion Steinmeyer was born in Berke-
ley (now Dorchester) County, South Carolina, on
February i6, 1870, and is the fifth in order of birth
of the eleven children bom to John Henry and
Matilda (Evans) Steinmeyer. The father was born
in Charleston and spent his life there, being prom-
inently identified with large business interests. He
was president of the Steinmeyer Lumber Company
of Charleston, and his father, who bore the same
name, had also been identified with the lumber trade
in Charleston, his native place. His father, George
W. Steinmeyer, the great-grandfather of the sub-
ject of this sketch, was a native of Wurtemberg,
Germany, and who on immigrating to the United
States made his first location in Pennsylvania, after-
wards locating in Charleston, South Carolina, with
which city the family has been identified ever since.
The subject's mother was a daughter of J. W.
Evans, who moved from Baltimore, Maryland, to
Charleston, where the daughter was born, her birth
occurring in the Marine Hospital, of which her
father was at that time superintendent. John H.
Steinmeyer was in the Confederate army during
the Civil war, being captain of Company A, Twenty-
fourth Regiment, SouUi Carolina Infantry, and his
death occurred at the age of sixty-nine years. His
wife died when fifty-nine years old. Of their eleven
diildren, seven grew to maturity.
William H. Steinmeyer secured his education in
his native city, attending the common schools, the
high school and The Citadel. He then went to Bal-
timore, where he took a thorough course in dent-
istry, after which he located at Beaufort, where he
has ever since been actively, engaged in the practice
oiE his profession. He is a most excellent workman,
careful and honest, and enjoys a high reputation as
a professional man, nearly twenty years of success-
ful practice having established him in the esteem of
the people. Mr. Steinmeyer has always evinced the
highest interest in educational matters, giving hearty
support to everything calculated to benefit the
schools in any way. His interest and ability were
recognized wwien, in 1914, he was made superin-
tendent of education, which position he is still filling
to the entire satisfaction of the people of his county.
In 1903 Mr. Steinmeyer was married to Alma
Devereaux Cxantt, the daug^er of Richard P. and
Ella (Mackay) Grantt, of Barnwell County, and they
have become the par«nts of six children, namely:
Ella Rachel, John Henry, Maud Douglas, William
Marion, Jr., Alma G. and Marie Therese.
Fraternally Mr. Steinmeyer is a member of the
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and has been
honored by being elected six times as master of the
lodge in Beaufort. He is also high priest of the
Chapter of Royal Arch Masons. He also holds
membership in the Knights of Pythias and the
Woodmen of the World. His religious affiliation is
with the Presbyterian Church, of which he is an
elder. Owing to his probity of character, his gen-
uine worth and genial disposition, he has gained a
position in his community as one of the earnest men
whose depth of character and strict adherence to
principle has called forth the admiration of his con-
temporaries.
Hon. Frank Cook Robinson was the first state
senator representing the new County of McCor-
mick, and was a member of the Lower House of
the Legislature and had charge of the bill providing
for the organization of that county from old Abbe-
ville. Mr. Robinson for many years has been a
prominent business man and banker at the town of
McCormick.
He was born October 2, 1870, at the old Robin-
son homestead three miles from McCormick, in
what was then Abbeville, now McCormick, County.
His parents were Captain R. J. and Frances (Cook)
Robinson. His grandfather was John Robinson, and
his great-grandfather was of Scotch ancestry and
came from the north of Ireland and settled on Long
Cane in Abbeville County about 1800. Capt. R. J.
Robinson was born and lived practically all his life
at the plantation three miles from McCormick. He
went from Abbeville County in the army and rose
to the rank of captain in the (Ton federate forces.
His wife, Frances Cook, lived on an adjoining plan-
tation.
Frank Cook Robinson grew up on the home farm,
graduated from Furman University in 1902, and for
two years was principal of the graded schools at
McCormick. For ten years he was in the railway
mail service, toward the end being on the Charles-
ton & Western Carolina Railway.
Mr. Robinson organized the Farmers Bank at
McCormick in 1907. This institution has had a
remarkable growth and enjoys great prosperity in
keeping with the fortunate district in which it is
located. Its progress has been especially rapid since
the organization of McCormick County in 1916.
The bank has a capital stock of forty thousand
dollars, surplus and undivided profits of twenty-five
thousand dollars, deposits of three hundred fifty
thousand dollars, and aggregate resources of ap-
proximately half a million dollars. Its resources
are adequate to meet the financial demands and
needs of the community, and its officers and direc-
tors are men of standing in the business community
and have carefully safeguarded and promoted all
legitimate enterprises in McCormick County. The
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P'"^'IC LIBRARY
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
133
president of the bank is J. B. Harmon, and Mr.
Kobinson has held the post of cashier for a num-
ber of years.
Mr. Robinson was a member of the House of
Representatives from Abbeville County in 191 3-16,
and worked in close co-operation with other citi-
zens from his community in bringing about the
organization of McCormick County. He was elected
the first senator from the new county in 1916, serv-
ing during the sessions of 1917-18. Mr. Robinson
was a 1920 delegate to the National Democratic Con-
vention in San Francisco, and in that year was
re-elected to the State Senate. He was chairman of
the committee on railroads and internal improve-
ments and a member of the finance committee.
During the war Mr. Robinson gave much of his
time to war work. He was chairman of the local
draft board, county chairman for the War Savings
Stamps campaign, and was chairman for the town
of McCormick m all of the five Liberty Loan Cam-
paigns.
Mr. Robinson married Miss Annie P. Talbert,
member of an old and honored family of Abbeville
and McCormick counties. They have a daughter,
Margaret, born in September, 19 18.
Henry Griggs Burckmyer. That the plenitude of
satiety is seldom attained in the aflFairs of life is
to be considered a most beneficial deprivation, for
where ambition is satisfied and every ultimate end
realized, if such be possible, apathy must follow.
Effort would cease, accomplishment be prostrate
and creative talent waste its energies in inactivity.
The men who have pushed forward the wheels of
progress have been those to whom satis factk>n lies
ever in the future, who have labored continuously,
always finding in each transition stage an incentive
for furdier eflFort. Henry G. Burckmyer, merchant
and farmer of Port Royal and Beaufort, is one
whose well directed efforts have gained for him a
position of desired prominence in the various
cirdes in which he moves, and his energy and enter-
prise have been crowned with success, and, having
ever had the interests of his county at heart and
sought to promote them in every way possible, he
has well earned a place along with his enterprising
fellow citizens in a permanent history of his
locality.
Henry G. Burckmyer was bom in Blackville,
SouUi Carolina, on February 9, 1870, and is the
second in the order of birth of nine children bom
to John A. and Anna (Hagood) Burckmyer. The
family is originally German, but has been estab-
lished in America for several generations. John A.
Burckmyer was a native of Charleston, South Caro-
lina, where he was reared and where he engaged
in mercantile business. During the Civil war he
was in the custom house and then, after the con-
clusion of that struggle, he again engaged in busi-
ness. Eventually he moved to Blackville, this state,
where he spent the rest of his days. He was twice
married, first to a Miss Davant, to which union
seven diildren were born. His second union, which
was with Anna Hagood, was blessed with nine
children.
Henry G. Burckmyer was reared in Blackville
and secured his education in the common schools.
He remained in . his native town until 1902, when
he came to Port Royal and engaged in the mer-
cantile business, which has occupied his attention
continuously since that time. He has a well stocked
store and commands a very satisfactory trade from
the representative people of his community. In
addition to his mercantile interests he also gives
considerable attention to truck farming, being the
owner of two plantations, with an aggregate acreage
of about five hundred acres. In all his enterprises
he has been very successful and enjoys an excellent
reputation as an enterprising and progressive man.
He maintains his home in Beaufort, where he has
a comfortable and attractive residence.
In 1902 Mr. Burckmyer was married to Virginia
Grimsley, the daughter of Judge D. A. Grimsley, of
Culpeper, Virginia. To this union have been born
three children, namely: Margaret Sloyd, Virginia
Grimsley and Henry Griggs, the latter dying in
infancy.
Fraternally Mr. Burckmyer is a member of the
Ancient Free Masons. He is a man of splendid
personal qualities, and is proud of the fact that
his forefathers fought on the side of the colonies
in the Revolutionary war, and some of them after-
ward became early settlers of South Carolina, bear-
ing their full share of the burden of the new com-
munity.
James Edward Britt is the recognized dean and
veteran in the business life of the town of McCor-
mick, which gained increased distinction as the
county seat of the newly or^nized McCormick
County. Mr. Britt has been an mfluential man there
for over a quarter of a century and is active vice
president of the oldest bank in the town and the
first banking organization in what is now McCor-
mick County.
He also belongs to a prominent and old time fam-
ily of this section of South Carolina. He was bom
in 1872, six miles from the present town of McCor-
mick, in what was then Abbeville, but now
McCormick County. His parents were Charles and
Mary (Foster) Britt. His great-grandfather was
Charles Britt, a noted character in the early days
of Abbeville district. When a child in 1760 he came
with his mother and other members of the family
from England and settled in Abbeville district in
the Buffalo neighborhood on Long Cane Creek.
Charles Britt at the age of sixteen ran away from
home and joined the Continental forces in fighting
the British in South Carolina. After the Revolu-
tion- he married a Miss Longelle, who represented
a strain of French Huguenot ancestry, her people
having settled at Bordeaux in Abbeville County.
James Edward Britt is a grandson of Jacob Britt.
His father, Charles Britt, like his ancestor of Revo-
lutionary fame, was also sixteen years of age when
he went to war, joining the Confederate army.
James E. Britt grew up in the country, attending
local schools and Furman University, and in 1892
engaged in merchandising at McCormick. In 1901
he became one of the founders of the Bank of
McCormick, served for a number of years as its
cashier and is now its active vice president. The
oldest bank in the town, it is also one of unsur-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
passed record as to integrity and ability of manage-
ment and resources. The bank has a capital stock
of sixty-eight thousand dollars, surplus and un-
divided profits of fifty-seven thousand dollars, and
has been the bulwark of nearly every commercial
and many of the individual careers in and around
McCormick.
Mr. Britt was one of the leading members of the
local committee promoting the movement for the
organization of the new county of McCormick, and
was especially influential in securing the location of
the county seat at the town of McCormick. Mr.
Britt owns a large amount of land and is busily
engaged in planting. He married Janie Belle Ken-
nedy. Their four children are named Ed>yard,
Frances, Mary Elizabeth and William Lewis.
James B. Heyward entered upon his career as a
Charleston lawyer in 1912, and as a member of the
firm McMillan & Heyward is busied with the inter-
ests of a large clientage and already has secured
a position as a skillful and eflfective counselor.
Mr. Heyward was born in McPhersonville, South
Carolina, May 29, 1891, a son of Robert B. and
Florida M. (Hutson) Hejrward. His father was
a native of South Carolina, for many years was a
rice planter and died December 16, 1918. The Hey-
ward family is of English descent and has been
located in and about Charleston since about 1680.
In the maternal line Mr. Heyward is a grandson
of Dr. Thomas W. Hutson, and the Hutson family
came from England to South Carolina about 1720.
Robert B. Heyward was twice married. His first
wife was Laura Porcher, who left him one daugh-
ter, Caroline H., now the widow of E. E. Douglas
and living at Greenville, South Carolina. By his
second marriage there were two children, Aucrusta
H., wife of Edward B. Sinkler, of Savannah, Geor-
gia, and James B. Heyward.
James B. Heyward was educated in Porter's Mil-
itary School at Charleston, graduating in 1907, and
received his Bachelor of Science degree from the
University of South Carolina in 191 1. He read law
in the office of Joseph B. Barnwell, was admitted
to the bar in December, 19 12, and for two years
did law work in the office of William Henry
Parker. On January i, 191 5, he formed his present
partnership with Mr. Thomas S. McMillan.
Mr. Heyward is a member of the Knights of
Pythias, being a past chancellor, is also a Mason,
belongs to the Kappa Alpha fraternity of the Uni-
versity of South Carolina, and is a member of the
St. Cecilia Club.
Giovanni Sottile came from Italy to Charleston,
Sout^ Carolina, as a young man of sterling character,
excellent scholastic attainments and purposeful ambi-
tion. He encountered a full quota of adverse condi-
tions and proved himself a master of the situation
which confronted him in the land of his adoption. He
achieved eventually the material success and the
high personal standing which the United States
ever offers to energy, ability and determination, and
he became not only a representative business man of
Charleston but also served with distinction as Italian
consular agent in this city, a position to which
he was appointed by the Italian government. May 31,
1899, and of which he continued the incumbent until
his death, which occurred June 28, 1913. Of hi^
service in this office the following estimate has
been given: "He did much to strengthen the cor-
dial relations between the two governments and
to aid those of his countrymen who, like himself,
had sought the opportunities afforded in America,
In just appreciation and recognition of his services
the Italian government conferred upon him an order
of knighthood, with the title of chevalier."
Giovanni Sottile was born at Gangi, Italy, June 29,
1866, and was a son of Salvatore and Rosina (Al-
bergamo) Sottile, the family of which he was a scion
having been one of special distinction in connection
with educational affairs in Italy for many years.
Salvatore Sottile was numbered among the patriotic
sons of Italy who served with Garibaldi in the his-
toric struggle for liberty in 1870. Giovanni Sottjle
was a studious youth, and his early educational dis-
cipline was largely supervised and directed by one of
his aunts, a talented woman who held the position
of superintendent of the schools of Gangi. Later
he continued his studies in the college at Palermo,
where he became specially proficient in mathematics.
•After leaving school he served four years in the
Italian army, in which, by reason of his ability
and superior education, he was promoted and as-
signed to responsible service in the accounting de-
partment. After leaving military service Mr. Sottile,
moved by worthy ambition, determined to seek the
superior advantages which he believed were to be
found in the United States. He arrived in New
York City in the autumn of 1889, and forthwith
sought employment. At that time there was an in-
sistent demand for workmen in the phosphate mines
in South Carolina, and groups of men were being
sent almost daily from the national metropolis to
engage in this work. A stranger in a strange land,
with only a superficial knowledge of actual condi-
tions, it is not strange that the young Italian immi-
grant soon found himself en route to South Caro-
lina, after having accepted a seemingly attractive
offer to take the position of accountant in one of
the phosphate camps, not far distant from Charles-
ton. Of the deplorable conditions, the brutal treat-
ment of the laborers, most of whom, like Mr. Sottile,
had been imposed upon by the crafty "padrones,"
it is not necessary to enlarge, but it may be stated
that the actual experience and the knowledge
gained during his period of service in the phosphate
camp formed the basis of the great service which
he was later enabled to render his countrjrmen in
America.
After a short sojourn, Mr. Sottile left the uncon-
genial phosphate camp and made his way, on
foot, to Charleston. His personality gained him
stanch friends in the city, and among those ,who
manifested kindly interest in the young stranger
was the wife of Commander Hitchcock, who was
in charge of the lighthouse service in this district.
Mrs. Hitchcock, recognizing his talent and sterling
character, aided him in securing employment as an
instructor in the Latin and Italian languages. He
soon became established in Charleston, and it was
not long before he was joined by his four brothers,
of whom more specific mention will be made in a later
paragraph and who came to America upon his ad-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
135
vice. It is not necessary in this brief review to enter
into details concerning the achievement and rise of
Mr. Sottile as one of the valued citizens and rep-
resentative business men of Charleston, whfcre the
Giovanni Sottile & Brothers Company became an
important factor in connection with commercial
progress.
. In 1896 Mr. Sottile returned to Italy, where was
solemnized his marriage to Miss Carmela Restivo,
a friend of his childhood days in Gangi, where she
likewise was born and reared. Mr. and Mrs. Sottile
became the parents of four children, Salvatore,
Rosina, Giovanni and Carmelina, all of whom were
born in Charleston, where they remained with their
widowed mother.
Of the four brothers, mentioned above, Nicholas
Sottile came to Charleston in 1890. He is presi-
dent of the company conducting a leading china
and glass emporium on King Street, and is actively
associated with other business activities, especially
in the handling of real estate and the incidental
furtherance of the development of Charleston.
Santo Sottile, who arrived in Charleston in 1895,
is president of the Sottile Cadillac Company of
Charleston, where he also has other important inter-
ests. Albert Sottile was but fourteen years old when
he came to this city in 1891, and he is now presi-
dent and treasurer of the Pastime Amusement
Company. He is one of the prominent theater own-
ers and managers of the south, and he built and now
operates the Victory, the Princess and the Garden
theaters in Charleston. James Sottile came to Charles-
ton in 1900, and, like his brothers, has here
achieved marked success. He is president of the
Charleston-Isle of Palms Traction Company; is vice-
president and general manager of the Charleston
Hotel Company, and is interested in other represen-
tative enterprises in his home city.
Paul M. Macmillan had practiced law only four
years when he was elevated to the bench as judge
of the Civil and Criminal Court of Charleston, and
has been doing such eflfective work in that position
that his services have been retained by the urgent
voice of opinion, though probably at the sacrifice
of his personal and financial interests.
Judge Macmillan, who was born in Charlestoti,
March 5, 1884, a son of Oswald and Emily Mary
(Smith) Macmillan. His father was a native of
Scotland, coming to South Carolina direct from
his native land. For many years he has been an
active business man of Charleston. Emily Mary
Smith was a native of this city and a daughter .
of Thomas Henry Smith. The parents had four
children, two sons and two daughters, Judge Mac-
millan being the youngest.
He graduated from high school in 1900 and fin-
ished his literary education in the College of
Charleston, where he graduated A. B. in 1903 and
with the Master of Arts degree in 1904. He
studied law in the University of the South, receiv-
ing his legal diploma in 1906. He forthwith engaged
in practice at Charleston, and in 1910 was elected
to his present office.
He is a member of the Knights of P3rthias, the
First Presbyterian Church and in 19 18 was the com-
modore of the Carolina Yacht Club. In 1917 he.
married St, Clair Walker, a daughter of B. Wilson
Walker.
Hon. Samuel Hodges McGhee. A lawyer and
banker, Mr. McGhee has been one of the honored
and useful residents of Greenwood all of his life
and enjoys a well earned and justified leadership in
local affairs.
He was born in Cokesbury, Abbeville County, in
1873, son of W. Z. and Sophronia R. (Hodges)
McGhee. His paternal ancestor Michael McGhee
came from Ireland, and was a North Carolina sol-
dier in the war for American independence, after
which he settled in Abbeville County, South Caro-
lina. The Hodges family has also lived in Abbe-
ville County for a number of generations.
Samuel McGhee was the son of a merchant, and
reverses which overtook his father a short time
before his death made the matter of securing a
liberal education one of great difficulty to the son.
But in intervals of other employment he received
all those advantages that are an index to a man
of sound culture. He attended the Cokesbury Con-
ference School, the Greenwood High School, and
in 1895 graduated with the A. B. degree from Wof-
ford College and in 1896 received his Master of
Arts degree from the same institution. He taught
school in Marion County from 1895 until 1899. The
following three years he was editor of the Green-
wood Index. In the meantime, in 1898, he had been
admitted to the bar, and has been in active and
regular practice since 1902, though his professional
work has been varied with many other business
duties. He was elected president of the First Na-
tional Bank of Greenwood in 1903 upon its organi-
zation. He is also president of ihe Panola Cotton
Mills and the Bauna Mills.
His father was a delegate to the National Con-
vention of the democratic party ui' 1884 when Cleve-
land was first nominated. The son also served as
a delegate to the National Conventions of 1900 and
1904, and Mr. McGhee is a member of the State
Senate, having been elected to that office in 1917.
He is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, a
Knight of Pythias, and in former years was affili-
ated with the gold standard wing of the democratic
party. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South.
Mr. McGhee married in 1906 Miss Laurie Harrall,
of Bennettsville, South Carolina.
Simeon Hyde is a Charleston lawyer whose name
has been identified prominently with various law
partnerships and with much of the important liti-
gatkm in the courts of the city and state for forty
years.
He was born at Charleston October 11, 1856. His
father, Simeon Hyde, was of an old Connecticut
family, but came to South Carolina when a young
man. His mother was Ann Eliza Tupper, daughter
of Tristram Tupper, for many years a prominent
Charleston business man.
Simeon Hyde received his preparatory education
in Charleston, and entered Charleston College in
1871, graduating in 1875. He studied law in the
office of Pressley. Lord & Inglesby, a law firm of
the highest standing, and that early association Mr.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Hyde has always regarded as a chief contributing
cause to his success. He was admitted to practice
in November, 1877, and was busy building up an
individual clientage until 1883, when he became
junior partner of the firm of Lord & Hyde. After
several years he again resumed individual practice.
In 1906 he became a member of the firm Mordecai,
Gadsden, Rutledge & Hagood, whidi after the
retirement of Mr. Hagood became Mordecai, Gads-
den & Rutledge. He was with this firm until
August I, 1917, when he retired. The firm of Mor-
decai, Gadsden & Rutledge was dissolved in Octo-
ber, 19 18, and at that time Mr. Hyde became asso-
ciated with Mr. Benjamin H. Rutledge in the firm
of Rutledge & Hyde. In January, 1920, Mr. G. N.
Mann was admitted to partnership and the firm
name changed to Rutledge, Hyde & Mann. They
handle a general law practice and are also Division
Counsel in Charleston of the Atlantic Coast Line
Railroad Company, and represent a number of other
corporations and extensive business interests.
Mr. Hyde is also known to the profession as one
of the authors of "Chisolm and Hyde Index —
Digest of South Carolina Reports," published in
1882. He was a member of the Charleston Delega-
tion in the South Carolina House of Representa-
tives from 1886 to 1888. For many years he was
prominent in the State Militia, serving as a com-
missioned officer, and retiring with the rank of
captain in 1888. In 1917, when United States
entered the European war, he was commissioned
captain of Company B, First Regiment, South Car-
olina Reserve Militia, established by the Legis-
lature as a military force within the state while the
National Guard and other state troops were enrolled
in the National Army. Mr. Hyde was for many
years in charge of the Mission work of The Citadel
Square Baptist Church in Charleston and is a dea-
con of that church.
Thomas Emmette Thrower was bom at Sum-
merville, Georgia, in 1880, and was reared and edu-
cated in Atlanta schools, growing up in the mag-
netic atmosphere of that great and rich southerQ
metropolis. This environment did much to improve
his native talents as a commercial salesman. He
was on the road selling goods at the age of seven-
teen. Few young men in the South have a finer rec-
ord in their profession than Mr. Thrower.
Mr. Thrower, whose parents were O. A. and
Fannie (McDaniel) Thrower of Atlanta, enlisted
his talents, enthusiasm and service in behalf of the
automobile industry about the time motor cars
achieved real popularity and recognition in the
South. He has been one of the most prominent
factors in extending the industry over the south-
eastern states. Several years ago he located at
Columbia, where he owns and manages the Thrower
Automotive Company. This company distributes
the Premier car in North and South Carolina,
Georgia and Florida, with a branch at Atlanta,
Georgia and Jacksonville, Florida, and also are
southern distributors for the Allen and Skelton
cars.
He has been one of the most prominent and
active members of the Columbia Automotive Trade
Association and one of the leaders in the forma-
tion of the South Carolina Automotive Trades As-
sociation. As chairman of the Show Committee of
this associatk>n he has charge of, and was respon-
sible for those special features of the Automobile
Show in Columbia in March, 1918, that caused com-
petent critics to pronounce that the best exposition
of its kind ever held in the capital city.
Having been so successful in his venture, he was
selected in 1920 as general diairman of all com-
mittees of the Great Spring Exposition which was
held in Columbia in March, the greatest exposition
of its kind ever attempted in the United States.
Mr. Thrower has enlisted his enthusiasm and sup-
port for many other movements in his home city
and state, being the originator of the Minute Men
of Columbia, a unique organization having for its
members the leaders of all organizations in the
city. This movement rejuvenated Columbia and
brought about such a spirit of co-operation and civic
activity as had never been experienced before re-
stdting in a greater Columbia. He is an advocate
of good roads and has exerted a very helpful in-
fluence in retaining Columbia's prestige as one of
the leading automobile centers in the South.
Mr. Thrower married Miss Luta Beard of Troy,
Alabama. They have three children: Frances, £m-
mett and Nell.
J. Waties Waring. A lawyer with a large prac-
tice, many influential social and civic connections,
J. Waties Waring has gained his professional suc-
cess in the same city where he was born.
A native of Charleston, bom Julv 27, 1880, he
is a son of Edward P. and Anna (Waties) Waring,
who were also natives of Charleston. His father
spent his life at Charleston, and was a railroad
man. The grandfather, Thomas R. Waring, was
a native of the same city and for a number of years
was cashier of the Bank of the State of South
Carolina. The Warings came to South Carolina
direct from England.
J. Waties Waring was the youngest in a family
of three sons and one daughter. The other sons
are Thomas R. and E. P., while the daughter is
Margaret, wife of Wilson G. Harvey.
Mr. Waring graduated in 1900 from the College
of Charleston, and prepared for the bar in the
office of Bryan & Bryan. He was admitted to prac-
tice in 190 1, and since that time his name has been
connected with an increasing volume of the legal
business of the city. For about five years he was
a member of the firm Von Kolnftz & Waring. The
firm now is Waring & Brockinton.
Mr. Waring is the present assistant United States
district attorney for South Carolina, appointed to
that office in 1914. He is a member of the Carolina
Yacht Club, South Carolina Society, was for sev-
eral years a member and captain of the Charleston
Light Dragoons, is a member of the Alpha Tau
Omega college fraternity, is a past master of the
Masonic Lodge, a member of the Knights of
Pythias and belongs to various other social organi-
zations. He has been quite active in democratic
politics, though never as an aspirant for honors on
his own account.
. October 30, 191 3, Mr. Waring married Anne S.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
137
Gammell, a daughter of William Gammell. They
have one daughter, Anne Gammell Waring.
John Hodges David, M. D. In the present day
of keen competition in all lines of industry, suc-
cess calls for the possession of superlative ability.
Whether in the professions, in productive lines, m
work of a promotive character, or in the great mar-
kets of the world, keen strife is invariably found;
and when the fight is made with vigor, nerve and
discernment, when success is acc^uired, half the com-
pensation other than financial m dependence is de-
rived from the satisfaction of having come a victor
from a conflict worthy of one's steel Of the men
of Dillon County who have fought a worthy fight
and who have been led to but further achievements
by the keenness of the fray, is Dr. John Hodges
David, formerly a leading and successful medical
practitioner, but of more recent years largely en-
gaged in business as a planter in the vicinity of
Dillon.
Doctor David was born at Bennettsville; South
Carolina, July 23, 1856, a son of Dr. William J. and
Rebecca (Spears) David. The original ancestor
of the David family in America was one Owen
David, who emigrated from Wales to this coun-
try about 1776 and settled in South Carolina, where,
in Marlboro County, John Hodges David, the grand-
father of Doctor David, was born and passed his
entire life as a farmer and planter. In that county
also was bom Dr. William J. David, who was
engaged in the practice of medicine at Bennettsville
at the time of the outbreak of the war between the
states, in which he served four years as a surgeon
in the army of the Confederacy. Following the close
of that struggle, he established himself to prac-
tice at Bennettsville, Marlboro County, and there
passed the remaining years of his life. He was a
man who was highly respected and esteemed both
in his profession and in social circles, and was a
man of influence and worth in his community. He
married Rebecca Spears, daughter of James Spears
of Marlboro County, South Carolina, and of their
eight children. Dr. John H. was the first born.
John Hodges David attended the public school
at Bennettsville and further prepared himself at
Ansonville, North Carolina, following which he
enrolled as a student at the Medical College of
South Carolina, at Charleston. He was graduated
from that institution with the class of 1879 and
his cherished medical degree of Doctor of Medi-
cine, and at once embarked in practice at Little
Rock, where he remained ten years. Although he
had built up a large and lucrative practice and was
a successful physician and surgeon, his various busi-
ness interests Had become so heavy and important
as to need his undivided attention, and he accord-
ingly gave up his practice and came to Dillon,
where he established himself in the midst of busi-
ness affairs and began to be at once an influencing
factor in the enterprises that were rapidly moving
this community toward prestige. He was the main
actor in the building of a cotton seed oil mill at
Dillon and was president of the company which
operated it, and subsequently became manager for
the company when it was sold to the Southern
Cotton Oil Company. After a number of years of
successful connection with this and other enter-
prises, in 1916 he moved from Dillon to a farm
two miles south of the city, where he has over
1,000 acres under cultivation, this land being de-
voted to cotton, tobacco and corn. He is known
as one of the successful and thoroughly informed
planters of his community, and his business affairs
are in a decidedly prosperous condition owing to
his excellent management, while his standing in
business circles is of the highest, due to the recog-
nition by his associates of his sterling integrity and
honesty of purpose.
Doctor David was married in 1879 to Miss Ar-
letts^ lone Manning, a sister of Senator J. H. Man-
ning, a sketch of whose career will be found on
another page of this work, and to this union there
have been born five daughters and one son : Anna,
Edna, Mrs. H. E. Dixon, whose husband is in part-
nership with her father, Helen and Alice, and Lieut.
John H., who met a hero's death on a battlefield
m Flanders, as the first officer from South Caro-
lina killed in action, and who now lies buried at
Theaucourt, St. Mihiel, American Cemetery, in
France. Doctor David is a thirty-second degree
Scottish Rite Mason and has numerous business,
social and civic connections. He was elected from
the Sixth Congressional District of South Carolina
a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at
San Francisco which he attended.
William Capers Miller. It is nearly forty years
since W. C. Miller was admitted to the bar and
began practice at Charleston. During that time
his name has been associated with some of the
most eminent lawyers of South Carolina and the
largest law firms, and the firm of which he is
senior member today has a standing and clientage
probably not exceeded by any other organization of
legal talent in th^ state.
Mr. Miller was born in Georgetown, South Caro-
lina, February 25, 1858. His great-grandfather,
John Miller, was of Pennsylvania Dutch origin and
came from Pennsylvania to South Carolina in
pioneer days. His grandfather, John C. Miller, was
a native of Charleston. Mr. Miller's father. Dr.
William C. Miller, was a native of Charleston but
practiced medicine in Georgetown, South Carolina,
for a number of years and died at the early age
of thirty-seven. His mother was Elizabeth M. Cut-
tino, of a French Huguenot family that came to
South Carolina in colonial times. He has one sis-
ter, Mary C, unmarried and living in Charleston.
He was reared and educated in Charleston and
as a boy attended the Sachtleben School, one of the
most noted preparatory schools of the South forty
or fifty years ago. After graduating there he
entered Furman University at Greenville, later the
University of Virginia, and leaving college in 1879
applied himself to the study of law at Charleston
until admitted to the bar in the fall of 1881. He
was first associated in practice with Mr. Charles
Inglesby. Later he was associated with George M.
Trenholm and R. G. Rhett, under the name Tren-
holm, Rhett & Miller. Subsequently he became
senior member of the firm Miller & Whaley, which
by subsequent changes became Miller, Whaley, Bis-
sell & Miller then Miller & Miller, and the present
partnership is Miller, Huger, Wilber & Miller.
Mr. Miller is attorney for many prominent busi-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
ness firms and corporations, including banks, fer-
tilizer companies and general commercial concerns.
Mr. Miller is a past master of Orange Lodge No.
14, Accepted Free Masons, and was at one time
district grand master of the Grand Lodge. He is
an ex-president of St. Andrews Society, which was
organized in 1729, being the oldest St. Andrews or-
ganization in America, and among the very first
societies of any kind to become established in South
Carolina. There is still preserved an unbroken roll
of the signatures of the members of this society,
from the date of its organization to the present. He
is vice president of the Huguenot Society of
Charleston, treasurer of the Carolina Art Associa-
tion, and a trustee of the Charleston Library
Society. He was a member of the first Board of
Law Examiners of the state, holding office about
six years. He has been a working member of the
democratic party, though never a candidate for
office. He has always attended worship with the
Baptist faith.
In 1887 he married Georgia H. Gordon, daughter
of James Gordon of Abbeville, South Carolina.
They have two children, Gordon and Margaret. The
son is junior member of his father's law firm.
Hon. Edgar Clifton Ridgell whose name is a
subject of frequent mention in the press of the
state as one of the leading members of the State
Senate, has many interests and distinctions to his
credit in his home community of Batesburg in Lex-
ington County. He was at one time a practicing
dentist and president of the South Carolina Dental
Association. He has not been active in his pro-
fession for more than twenty years and has given
his time to planting and fruit growing. He is one
of the leading laymen of the Baptist Church and
as a man of large means and great influence has
worked untiringly in behalf of many forward move-
ments in his home county and state.
Mr. Ridgell was born in Lexington County where
the town of Batesburg is now located, November
6, 1859, a son of Joel and Susannah (Fox) Ridgell.
The Ridgell family is of English origin and first
settled at Charleston. Joel Ridgell spent all his
life in Lexington County. He owned the land on
which the Town of Batesburg was built, and was
a highly honored character there for many years.
The Fox family is likewise one of long residence
in the county.
The birthplace of Edgar C. Ridgell was part of
the original plantation now in the City of Bates-
burg. The old home was burned some years ago
and Senator Ridgell replaced it with his present
residence. He was educated in the public schools
at Prosperity in Newberry County and attended the
sessions of 1880-81, in the Baltimore College of
Dental Surgery. He began practice in 1881 at Pros-
perity, and in 1885 returned to his old home at
Batesburg, where for twelve years until 1897 he
gave his chief time to his professional work. Since
then he has devoted his attention to his property
interests and agriculture.
The farm where he does his planting and fruit
growing is a portion of the old plantation and is
in Batesburg. Mr. Ridgell is president of the Lex-
ington County Corn Growers Association and was
one of the organizers and president and treasurer of
the cotton mill at Batesburg, which was built in
1885.
While his own affairs have demanded so much of
his time he has apparently made one of the ruling
principles of his life an ambition for service in be-
half of his civic community, church and every
worthy movement. While practicing dentistry he
was honored with the office of president of the
State Dental Association. He has served as town
councilman, was president of the Batesburg Board
of Trade, and for seven years was honored with
the position of moderator of the Ridge Baptist
Association. This is one of the largest and most
prosperous associations in the state, having a mem-
bership of nearly four thousand. He was also presi-
dent of the Ridge Baptist Sunday School Conven-
tion for many years. Mr. Ridgell at present has
charge with others of the campaign in this asso-
ciation's jurisdiction to raise its apportionment of
the $5,000,000 fund now being acquired by the
Southern Baptist Church for general educational
and reKgious purposes. He was president of the
Interdenominational Sunday School Convention of
Lexington County for a term. Mr. Ridgell is a
deacon in the Batesburg Churcb, has been superin-
tendent of its Sunday school for twenty years, and
was for several years a member of the board of
trustees of the Baptist Hospital at Columbia. He
served as chairman of trustees of public schools in
Batesburg, also president of Tri-County Fair As-
sociation.
He was first sent to the Legislature from Lex-
ington County in 1909-10. He served in the House
and in 19 16 was elected to the Senate for a term
of four years. During the 1919 session he was a
member of the important Finance Conmiittee and
chairman of the Police Regulation Committee. He
was author of the bill in the Legislature, appro-
priating $500,000 to build an office building for the
various state departments whk:h passed the Senate
at the 1920 session but failed in the House.
For more than twenty years. Doctor Ridgell has
taken a leading part in the prohibition movement,
both in his county and the state, serving much of
the time as county chairman of the party in Lex-
ington County. He was also active in the various
drives made in the interest of the Liberty Loans.
He was appointed chairman for Lexington County,
in the campaign for funds for the American Red
Cross, organized the county work and raised more
than the apportionment asked for. He has had
prominent part in advancing the cause of educa-
tion, serving as school trustee for a number of
years. He is also a director in the First National
Bank, of Batesburg.
December 20, 1881, Doctor Ridgell married Miss
Ella McFall of Prosperity. Their six children are
Daniel Effingham; Lottie, wife of G. F. Norris of
Greenville; J. McFall Ridgell; Miss Rosa; Grace,
wife of Ira C. Carson; and Miss Louise.
Hon. John Frederick Wiixiams. During a con-
tinuous service of over ten years as a member of
the Lower House and the State Senate of Aiken
County. Mr. Williams has rendered services that
have brought him wide recognition as one of die
state's most useful leaders in public affairs.
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HISTORY OF. SOUTH CAROLINA
139
Amongst the bills he advocated were compulsory
school attendance, medical and dental examination
of school children and better pay for teachers, all
of which were enacted. In his home city he has
been a successful lawyer since 1905.
Mr. Williams was born near Salley in Aiken
County, February 26, 1884, son of W. S. and Mary
(Williamson) Williams, both deceased. His great-
grandfather Williams was born in England. W. S.
Williams was born in that section of Aiken, for-
merly a part of Lexington County. Senator Wil-
liams' maternal grandfather was Thomas William-
son, and the Williamsons are one of the oldest
families of Lexington County.
John Frederick Williams grew up on his father's
plantation, attended the Smythe Academy near
Salley and took his literary and law courses in
South Carolina College. He pursued special aca-
demic courses and the law course three years, grad-
uating in law in 1905. He was prominent in student
activities at the University and was chiefly respon-
sible for organizing the Criminal Moot Court of
the law school. In college he was a leader in ora-
tory, being once monthly orator of the Claraosophic
Literary Society, and his talents in that direction
have improved with his service as a lawyer and
legislator. He has practiced steadily at Aiken, first
as a law partner of C. E. Sawyer, under- the name
Sawyer & Williams, and since then has been in in-
dividual practice. He has a large interest in both
State and Federal Courts.
- Mr. Williams was elected to represent Aiken
County in the Lower House of the General As-
sembly in 1908, serving in the sessions beginning
in 1909 and including 1912. In the latter year he
was elected to the State Senate and was reelected
for a second term of four years in 1916. He is one
of the Senate leaders, being chairman of the com-
mittee on education, ex-officio trustee of Winthrop
College and University of South Carolina, and a
member of the judiciary and other committees. In
May, 1920, he attended the National Conference on
Education at Washington, D. C, under appointment
from the governor.
Mr. Williams was one of the organizers and is a
director of the Bank of Windsor in Aiken County.
He and his wife are members of the Baptist
Church. He married Miss Etta Turner, of Gran-
iteville. South Carolina, in 1908. Their two chil-
dren are Mary and Sargent Pickens Williams.
Col. Robert Cochran Emanuel. This name
serves to recall not only a very useful and highly
dignified figure in the old regime of South Caro-
lina, but also by the manner of his death, at the
hands of assassins, the peculiar horrors of the early
reconstruction period. Some of his family are still
living in old Marlboro County, including his daugh-
ter. Mrs. P. L. Breeden, of Bennettsville.
The family trace descent from Michael and Flora
Emanuel, a young married couple with children
who came from London to Charleston, South Caro-
lina, in the late 1780's. Simeon Emanuel, their young-
est child and the father of Col. Robert C. Emanuel,
was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1800.
He came to the Marlboro District, South Carolina,
when quite a young man, and was successful in
business. He married Miss Maria Cochran, a grand-
daughter of Thomas Cochran, who was a brother
of Dr. John Cochran, Gen. George Washington's
surgeon-general, also a brother of Maj. Robert
Cochran, who was in command of Fort Edward
with 500 men when Burgoyne crossed the St. Law-
rence River from Canada into the United States,
and immediately retreated. Thomas Cochran came
to Marlboro District on the Big Pee Dee River
in 1736. This was the Welsh settlement on the
Great Pee Dee. He married Miss Lucrecia Coun-
cil, the daughter of Capt. Henry Council, who
served in the Rangers imder Gen. Francis Marion,
Marion's Brigade. Thomas Cochran's chart from
George III for 200 acres of land has been preserved
and is now in the possession of Mrs. Breeden.
Strange to say, this 200 acres of land lies in a large
body and was owned by her husband at his death
on October 10, 1919.
Maria Cochran Emanuel was a woman of no or-
dinary mental ability. Simeon Emanuel was a
chaste, peaceful and refined business man. He and
his wife were obnsistent members of the Baptist
Church, and both died in full fellowship with the
church. Both Simeon Emanuel and his son Robert
Cochran Emanuel belonged to the Masonic Lodge.
Col. Rofiert Cochran Emanuel was born m Marl-
boro County, August 16, 1825, son of Simeon
Emanuel, who was born, as stated above, in Charles-
ton in 1800. Simeon Emanuel became a very promi-
nent and wealthy merchant at Brownsville m Marl-
boro County, and operated several stores and also
conducted a line of steamboats on the Pee Dee
River. In managing his extensive plantation and in
business affairs he employed the service of a large
number of slaves. He was one of the progressive
men of his day. . r* t 1
Concerning the life and character of Colonel
Emanuel, who lost his life near his residence m
Marlboro District, June 16, 1866, the best account
is a contemporaneous one, written by a friend a
few weeks after he was murdered, showing the
esteem in which he was held and some of the emo-
tions his assassination caused in a community then
suffering from the waste and devastation of war
and anticipating the heavier burdens of reconstruc-
tion rule. The chief portions of this In Memo-
riam" follows : "In the prime of manhood and m
the midst of a career of prosperity and useful-
ness, he was cut short in a manner revolting to all
feelings of humanity. He began life early, hav-
ing married in his minority, and to the end battled
with obstacles with a steadiness and success rarely
to be seen. Deprived of the benefits of a finished
education, he labored under the disadvantages con-
sequent therefrom. By relying on his own re-
sources and strong native sense, he conquered where
others more favored have failed, and won for him-
self a name for intelligence and successful indus-
try which challenges comparison and is worthy of
emulation. By prudent management and untiring
effort he elevated himself from poverty to wealth,
and made himself admired bv all who have a prooer
appreciation of the energetic man. Kind in dis-
position, gentle in deportment, and lavish in hos-
pitality, he had drawn around him a large number
of admiring friends, and even those with whom he
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
had unwittingly excited prejudice were glad to have
the benefit of his prudent counsel and advice in the
hour of trouble and need. Few men in the dis-
trict, if any, wielded more influence than the de-
ceased, certainly none in his own immediate neigh-
borhood. Though possessed of a large and de-
pendent family, he did not hesitate to leave all in
response to his country's call in our recent struggle
for liberty. He was among the first to raise and
carry into service a company from Marlboro, and
with them cheerfully endured the privations of a
soldier's life; and doubtless to his training may
be ascribed the effective service and noble conduct
of these men throughout the war. To the soldier
in the field he was stern, but ever just and kind,
to the soldier's family at home he was ever benevo-
lent. At any time his loss would have been felt
in this community; but especially is it serious at
the present juncture, when the Example of just such
men is needed to teach our oppressed people never
to despair, as all losses may be repaired and all
difliculties surmounted bj^ determined resolution. As
a neighbor he was obliging, as a citizen public spir-
ited and patriotic, as a friend, steadfast, and as a
son, husband and parent, gentle, kind and affec-
tionate. It is seldom we see more devotion and
attachment to one's family than ruled bis breast;
it was in the family circle he most closely evinced
his strikin^^ and lofty traits of character. Here his
jrood qualities were brightly revealed through the
intensity of his love and devotion to his own.
"The deceased was not a professed Christian, but
admired the beauties of religion, and but a short
time preceding his death he expressed to his most
intimate friends his resolution to identify himself
with the church.
"Our sympathy and condolence for the bereaved
wife and family are sincere. To them his loss is
irreparable; and while the present generation lasts,
many will be the relets in the community of
Brownsville at the untimely death of its most use-
ful member."
Colonel Emanuel received his title colonel while
serving with a militia regiment during the '50s.
This was State Regiment No. 37.
Colonel Emanuel married Sarah Johnson DuPrje,
daughter of Thomas Johnson James DuPre and
granddaughter of James DuPre, who was one of
the original Huguenot settlers coming to South
Carolina from France. James DuPre was a noted
planter and slave owner in colonial times. A list
of the children of Colonel Emanuel is as follows:
Margaret Elizabeth; James Simeon and Henry C.
both deceased; Alice M., wife of J. G. W. Cobb of
Bennettsville ; Eleanor, who died in young woman-
hood; Francis M., deceased; Sarah Delia, wife of
H. P. Johnson, of Bennettsville; Theodosia, de-
ceased wife of Enos Watson; Bulah, deceased wife
of Isham Watson; Sarah, wife of John Watson;
and Thomas Johnson James, married and father of
a family.
Margaret Elizabeth Emanuel was born in the
Brownsville settlement of Marlboro County, August
18, 1843, and was liberally educated in the South
Carolina Female College at Columbia. She mar-
ried Capt. P. L. Breeden and became the mother
of six children. Alma Estelle, the oldest, is the
widow of John H. Burkhalter, living at Columbia.
Julius A. lives in Bennettsville. Alice is the de-
ceased wife of Frank P. Siegnious. Mary Bristow
died at the age of four years, and the fifth child
died in infancy. Margaret Elizabeth is the wife
of J. E. B. Holladay, lawyer of Suffolk, Virginia.
Mrs. Breeden is an active member of the Baptist
Church.
CoL. James Simons, of Charleston, a South Caro-
linian of national distinction who died at the age
of nearly fourscore years, was a link connecting
the modern present with a period of the state tJiat
is becoming more and more a matter of historical
record.
James Simons, whose death occurred on July 4»
1919, a day whose associations were always deeply
significant to him, was born at Charleston, Novem-
ber 30, 1839, of French Huguenot ancestry with a
strong admixture of Scotch and English blood.
Just a century before his death another member of
the family. Col. Keating Simons, was taken away
from the community of Charleston, and at that time
an orator said: "The name of Simons is with the
people of Charleston clarum et venerabilc nomen,
great in science, great in medicine, great in the law,
great in divinity and amiable in all the duties and
charities of life." The same significance has
attached to the name during the last century.
Colonel Simons was the third to bear the name
James. His grandfather was a distinguished officer
in the Continental Army, serving under Col. Wil-
liatn Washington at Cowpens. His father was a
man of very striking appearance and distinguished
scholarship and was speaker of the House of Repre-
sentatives at Columbia at the time of the b^in-
ning of the war between the states, holdin£[ that
post for a longer period than any other man in the
history of South Carolina. Colonel Simons was a
son of James and Sarah L. (Wragg) Simons.
He grew up and had associations from early boy-
hood with distinguished men in his state. He
served as a page in the Legislature while his father
was speaker. He was educated in the South Caro-
lina College when Judge Longstreet was its presi-
dent. Later he attended the University of Leipzig,
Germany, and studied law with his father. Hobart
College and the University of South Carolina both
bestowed upon him the honorary degree LL. D. He
returned from abroad just before the war and was
admitted to the bar in i860. He went with his
state when South Carolina voted for secession and
became first lieutenant in Bachman's Battery and
later was made its captain. Members of tiiis com-
pany had all enlisted for five years and the circum-
stances of the organization were such that Mr.
Simons refused any other promotion and was with
the battery throughout the war, participating in
such battles as Seven Pines. Seven Days* Battle
around Richmond, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg,
Fredericksburg and Gettysburg and many of the
operations between Savannah and Charleston. He
never surrendered his company, disbanding it when
the news of the capitulation of Johnston's Army
reached him. After recovering from the eflFects of
this service he and his father returned to Qiarles-
ton, where he began the heavy task of rehabilitat-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
141
ing his fortunes and establishing himself in his
profession. He and his father were together in
practice until the latter 's death in 187a. and later
he was associated with Gen. Rudolph Siegling and
John D. Cappelmann under the name Simons, Sieg-
ling & Cappelmann. Though he announced his in-
tention to retire from his profession he was never
able to do so completely and his name remains as
one of the most distinguished in the annals of the
bar of South Carolina during the last half century.
For a quarter of a, century also Colonel Simons
was prominent in affairs at Charleston as president
of the News and Courier Company. For many
years he kept his resolution to abstain from poli-
tics, but was finally drawn into the struggle for
the restoration in the state of white rule, and was
a member of the House of Representatives from
1878 to 1891 and speaker of the House from 1882
to 1890. As a member of the rules committee he
revised the rules of the House after the radical
regime, and those rules today bear the impress of
his services. He was a distinguished parliamen-
tarian, and his services in that position were con-
sistent with those rendered by his honored father
many years previously.
Much has been said and is a matter of current
knowledge concerning his work as chairman of the
Board of Public Schqol Commissioners at Charles-
ton during the last twelve years of his life. It was
his aim to keep the schools out of debt and at
the same time to enlarge and advance their stand-
ards to meet the growing needs of the community.
The school system of Charleston at the time of his
death was unburdened with debt or incumbrances,
and a record of constructive work includes the
building of the Mitchell School and the Colored
Industrial School.
For many years Colonel Simons was devoted to
the patriotic organization the Sons of Cincinnati,
and it is said he was present at every meeting of
that order in Charleston for half a century, attend-
ing one of the meetings during the war while in
the uniform of a Confederate soldier. Many of
his friends felt that his death on the 4th of July
was particularly significant He was president of
the State Society of the Order from 1898 and since
1902 had been vice president general of the Na-
tional Society. He was also president of the Caro-
lina Arts Association.
The following comments on his personal life and
character found in a Charleston paper will be of
interest: ''Mr. Simons was one of the most charm-
ing of men in his personality and a man of much
scholarship and varied accomplishments. He not
only kept up his interest in classical learning but
all his life was a student of music. He slept very
little, generally working or reading until after
midnight, and rising by or before six in the morn-
ing, when he usually played the violin until break-
fast On the streets of the city his has been one
of the best known and most familiar figures and
his passing will be looked upon as removing one
who was not only a type of all that was best in
the Old South but an example of that sort of citi-
zenship which feels that useful public servke comes
ahead of everything else.
Colonel Simons married, October 16, 1890, Miss
Elizabeth Potter Schott, of Philadelphia, Pennsyl-
vania. She survives him. Colonel Simons was a
brother of Dr. Manning Simons, a physician and
surgeon of Charleston who died in 191 1.
Rev. Pleasant Edgar Monroe is the president of
an increasingly well known institution for the higher
education and training of youna: women, Summer-
land College at Summerland, founded and main-
tained under the auspices of the Joint Conference
of' the South Carolina Conference of the South
Carolina Synod of the Lutheran Church.
The first plans for the founding of this institu-
tion for the education of young women within
South Carolina were made in April, 1909, and in
the winter of 1911-12 the Summerland Inn prop-
erty was secured and in this building the college
was opened October i, 1912. The colleg^e has a won-
derful location in the Piedmont region of South
Carolina, and its facilities are now availed of by
an average of 100 students, and there is a corps of
nine teacher's on the staff, headed by Rev. Mr. Mon-
roe.
Mr. Monroe was born in Salsbury, North Caro-
lina, December 18, 1875, son of Thomas B. and
Victoria (Cress) Monroe. He grew up on his
father's farm, attended local schools and Episcopal
schools and was a student in the North Carolina
College, where he was graduated in 1898, A. B., and
in the Chicago Theological Seminary, where he was
graduated in 1901. Then followed an active ca-
reer as a pastor, bein^^ in charge of the Lutheran
Church at Pulaski, Virginia, two years, six years
at Ehrhard, South Carolina, five years at Johnston
in this state, and in 1913 was called to his duties
as president of Summerland College. He is looked
upon as one of the leaders in the Lutheran Church
in South Carolina. In 1910 he received the degree
of D. D. from Newberry College.
April 2, 1902, he married Julia Houseal Hentz of
Newberry. They have a daughter Mary Catherine.
Cooper Family. The Cooper family, represented
at Denmark and some other localities of South
Carolina, is one of the first families of the state
in point of lineage, prominence and patriotism.
The first Coopers came from England as Quaker
followers of Sir William Penn and settled in Penn-
sylvania. About two generations ago the Coopers
began breaking away from their faith as Quakers,
and most of them became Baptists.
Jeremiah Cooper, grandfather of the branch of
the family in South Carolina, came from Pennsyl-
vania to upper South Carolina in 1774. An Indian
trader, he married Miss Charity Clark. They often
made the journey back to Philadelphia to vbit
relatives. Members of this generation all figured
prominently in the Revolutionary war. Letters and
documents tell of the journey of Jeremiah Clark
Cooper to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1824, -when Atlanta
was simply a small trading post for Indians. These
facts and many others are all substantiated in
Landrum's History of Upper South Carolina.
The father of those Coopers still found near
Graham (now Denmark) was Clark Columbus
Cooper. In 181 8 he was born in Laurens County,
South Carolina, and in 1837, before he was twenty-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
one, moved to Denmark. He was the youngest of
eleven children. From Denmark he soon removed
to Augusta, Georgia, but soon returned. February
1 6, iS47t he married Miss Alice Reed, grand-
daughter of the well known Malcolm Clark, justice
of the peace in Orangeburg District in 1775-76.
They were married on the plantation granted by
King George to Malcolm Clark, who had served as
a crown surveyor under appointment by that king.
This plantation remains in the possession of the
family today. A brother of Clark Columbus
Cooper, Micajah, served in the Mexican war, and
another brother, Sam, in the Florida Indian war.
Clark Columbus Cooper was the father of: Samuel
Powell, deceased; Marion Reed Cooper, a noted
figure in South Carolina politics living in Port
Royal ; Georgie, who married Robert Gibbs ' Center
and both are deceased; Jerome, deceased; William
Sumpter, living on the old plantation; Elizabeth,
who married William Clark; Perry H., deceased;
James Clark, deceased; Julia D., at home; Alice,
deceased; and Lillie, still at the old home. Wil-
liam Sumpter Cooper married Augustus Faust and
has two sons. Perry and Angus. He lives on
Cooper Street, on the old plantation opposite his
sisters, Julia and Lillie, who occupy the old home
to which their father brought his bride in 1847. and
where all the children were born and where the
children died. This property is entailed and some
of the two hundred acres are within the city
limits.
When the war of the states broke out Qark
Columbus Cooper was too old for actiye service
and became a member of the Reserves, Barnwell
District, Eighth Battalion, as a first lieutenant and
afterward as captain. All the members of this
organization were either too old or too young for
regular army service. One of those too youthful
was James H. Bush, who was in Captain Cooper's
Company. One precious relic of the war period
is a book in which the Northern prisoners in
Captain Cooper's care wrote their names and rank.
In exquisite pen and ink the first page is em-
bellished with the inscription "Autographs of Fed-
eral Officers, Prisoners of War of Charleston,
South Carolina, presented to First Lieut. C. C.
Cooper." A letter signed by Capt H. J. McDon-
ald, Eleventh Connecticut Volunteers, and William
C. Locke, first lieutenant Connecticut Volunteers,
describes how Captain Cooper did everything to
alleviate their sufferings compatible with his duty
as a Confederate officer, even using his own money.
It asked all Northerners to treat him as a gentle-
man and Mason. Among names in the autograph
book are many known to fame. In the book of
autographs of southern men are those of G. T.
Beauregard, general of the Confederate States
Army; R. S. Ripley, brigadier-general; John H.
Winder, brigadier-general; M. C. Butler, the fa-
mous South Carolinian; Gen. J. B. Hood, Wade
Hampton, Lieut-Gen. W. H. Wallace, Brigadier-
General Hagood and many others of fame.
After the war Captain Cooper came back home
and heroically gathered up the little left by Sher-
man's army, and after the war, as during it, lived
a hero and a patriot and died at the homestead
in 1894.
Mrs. Clark Columbus Cooper died in March,
1920, when nearly ninety years of age. She was
an object of love and reverence, and old and young
made pilgrimages to her home just to see her even
at the last when she could not talk to them.
Teachers and pupils alike came to her for first
hand information and dates of the Civil war and
to listen to thrilling accounts of Sherman's march,
when it required four full days for the army, four
abreast eacii side of the Cooper home, to pass it
In her home Wheeler's Scouts ate dinner, a few
hours later Brigadier-General Williams occupied
the' opposite end of the house, eating and sleeping
there while tents filled the spacious yard, and one
day later General Sherman arrived, riding his fa-
mous black horse, and ate his dinner in the lovely
parlor today filled with invaluable mementoes of
the Cooper family and of the war between the
states. In front of the house still stands the black
jack oak to which Sherman's horse was tied. In
the parlor are the tables and chairs used by the
northern officers, and also a child's chair of ma-
hogany and rosewood, looted from some home near
and which the soldiers placed on the fire and the
Coopers recovered. Their silver spoons in antici-
pation of the raid had been buried in soft mud,
and though the soldiers poked about with their
bayonets they were not discovered. A large sum
of money and a quantity of "handsome silver sent
to Orangeburg for safety were all carried away
by the enemy. At the beginning of the war Clark
Columbus Cooper had in a safe (still standing in
the home) a large sum of money to erect a mag-
nificent mansion. The bricks had been hauled, but
he gave the money to his beloved South for uni-
forms and food for its army, and the brick he sold
for the same purpose. Thus the wonderful his-
torical old home still stands, a rambling white cot-
tage enclosed with a fence made of the pickets
placed there by an English workman and which
cost what was then a fabulous sum, twelve dol-
lars per panel to make.
Clark Columbus Cooper was also a member of
the Ku Klux Klan. His sword and uniform of
gray are cherished possessions of Miss Lillie
Cooper. He had feared the worst for his family
when Sherman marched through. However, be-
yond the incidents above noted, they were safe
from Sherman and his men, though two stragglers
lingered when the enemy marched off, and demand-
ing Mrs. Cooper's gold watch, were just setting
the house on fire when an orderly galloped up and
scared them off.
This house is now an objective for many visitors
from all over the United States. They are always
welcomed and Miss Lillie and her sister Julia open
the house with its priceless treasures for inspection.
Many articles eventually will be given to the various
museums, and others distributed among the family.
Miss Lillie Cooper, youngest child of Clark
Columbus Cooper and Alice (Reed) Cooper, was
born in the historic Cooper home, whose location
many years ago was known as Graham's Turnout,
then Graham, and now as Old Denmark, the newer
town of Denmark being about a mile away. Old
Denmark is a Hag station. Miss Cooper recently
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
143
delivered a talk on this subject to the United
Daughters of the Confederacy, telling them that
Mr. Graham made the deed with the proviso that
the moment the railroad ceased to use it as a
station it reverted to his heirs. His son is living
and a grandson, Winchester Graham, lives at New
Denmark. The flag station thus must always be
in use.
Miss Lillie Cooper is a true daughter of the
South, a gentlewoman whose influence is felt not
only in her home and town but throughout her
beloved state. She lives in the old home with her
sister Julia. It is a peaceful, beautiful spot, sur-
rounded by stately trees, with about two hundred
acres in the estate. The columns of the wide old
gates were demolished by Sherman's raiders, a
portion of one still standing.
Miss Julia and Miss Lillie Cooper intend to
bequeath many of their heirlooms to state institu-
tions. Both were educated near their home, which
both love above the ordinary love for a home.
Their mother came here as a bride, the children
were all born here, the father and mother died
here, and it is a hallowed spot. They have heard
their parents tell of the thrilling events which took
place in this home while it was used successively
as headquarters for Wheeler's Scouts of the. Con-
federate army and for General Sherman and
Brigadier-General Williams of the Northern army.
From memory the sisters have an impressive testi-
mony as to the destructive effect of Sherman's
raiding army. No family of South Carolina or the
entire South gave more or suffered more than the
Cooper family.
In their home is a piece of the iron rail used
in building the first railroad in South Carolina.
They have counterpanes over a hundred years old,
grandmothers caps from one to two hundred years
old, and other articles of clothing of similar age.
One is a dressing sacque worn by their great-
grandmother, Alice Cloud, and one of the grand-
mother caps was worn by Mary Reed, daughter of
Malcolm Clark. In every room are priceless treas-
ures — the huge glass shades placed over candles,
a spinning wheel, a mirror that has hung in one
place over seventy years, miniatures, silver, china —
these and others tfiat might be noted in an in-
ventory are still retained, while many treasures
were stolen in the war. General Wheeler was
expected, his rooms were supplied with the best
of the house, but instead General (Federal) Wil-
liams occupied it and when he left the soldiers
despoiled all that could be carried away. Many
think the Cooper home should be the property of
the state, but Captain Cooper strictly entailed it.
Miss Lillie Cooper has a fortune for herself and
her sister in Confederate bonds which their father
bought and in Confederate money, if these could
be redeemed. They also have South Carolina
money of the issue of 1779.
Miss Lillie Cooper organized the first Daughters
of the Confederacy in Denmark, was its first presi-
dent and has always been its most valued speaker
and historian. She is now in great demand as a
speaker and writer. Constant study and research
have made her an authority on history, but she is
also widely versed on other subjects of the day.
She was a member of the Arlington committee and
a leader in all work for the World war, and is
recorder of crosses of the South Carolina Division
and a director of World war records. She has
now taken the place of her mother, and the pupils
and teachers of the schools come out to the old
home for information on historical subjects. She
and her sister, Miss Julia, are gracious hostesses
to the visitors from all over the United States and
even from England and other countries.
Their's is a wonderful home, presided over by
two Southern ladies, than which there is no higher
title in the world.
Sam L. Sweeney. Farmers and stock men all
over the State of South Carolina are familiar with
the name and business of Sam L. Sweeney of Co-
lumbia. He has handled livestock, especially horses
and mules, for over thirty years, and he knows do-
mestic animals and the business of handling them
as only a man can with the benefit of thirty years
of practical and intimate experience. His suc-
cess in business has meant more than mere money
making, and has stood firmly from the beginning
on the bedrock of integrity and character. He has
earned a good name and his associates in Columbia
and over the state vouch for the fact that his word
is as good as his bond and that the latter is gilt
edged.
Mr. Sweeney is entirely a self-made man, and
educated himself by contact with the world of busi-
ness and men. He was born in Columbia, August
25, 1874, a son of John C. and Mary (Hill)
Sweeney. He has been in the livestock business
since he was thirteen years of age, and from that
time has depended upon his own efforts to advance
him in the world. For several years he was located
at the Columbia stock yards, later bought the Rhea
livestock business, and since January, 1919, has
been located at 14 13 Assembly Street. He has been
a hard worker, and the disposition of his means
indicates a thorough faith in Columbia as a coming
commercial metropolis. He owns over thirty houses
and lots in Columbia. For four years he was a
member of the city council and is now serving on
the Civil Service Commission. He is also a direc-
tor in the National State Bank, and the Homestead
Bank, both of Columbia.
Doubtless the greatest inspiration to his business
career has been his happy family life. He married
Miss Catharine Koneman of Columbia, and his
greatest misfortune was her death in 19 12. She was
a young woman of true nobility of character and
in the few years of her association with her chil-
dren impressed her characteristics upon them so
that even in the eight years since she died her in-
fluence has been a constant one in their growth
and development. Mr. Sweeney now has two grown
daughters, both educated in good schools and col-
lege, and have shown splendid preparation and
equipment for life's serious work. The daughters
are Georgia F. and Hilda S. Sweeney. The latter
made an especially notable record as a student at
St. Genevieve's School in Asheville, North Carolina.
The* only son is Sam Louis Sweeney, bom in 1909.
At the age of ten he is already a willing and cheer-
ful assistant to his father in business, and shows
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
every promise of a fine young manhood. WhUc
the children have had every advantage at home and
at school, they have never shown the slightest in-
clination to idleness, and voluntarily have chosen
means and accepted opportunities to do useful work
and assist their father.
Oscar E. Johnson, president of the Southern
Home Insurance Company, is one of the most
aggressive business men of Charleston, where his
operations have made him a well known man. He
was bom at Charleston, December 25, 1853, a son
of Oscar E. Johnson, also a native of Charleston,
of English extraction. His mother was prior to
her marriage Miss Gabriella A. Strobel, one of
the best known instructors in languages in the city,
and she came of German ancestry. The Johnson
family was founded in South Carolina at a very
early day in its history, the descendants of the orig-
inal settler taking part in the constructive work of
developing the country from colonies of England.
Daniel Strobel, the maternal great-grandfather of
Oscar E. Johnson, came to South Carolina from
Germany in 1752, when he was nineteen years of
age, and located at Charleston, becoming active in
the life of the city, and lieutenant of a company
of home guards. His death occurred in 1786 after
a residence at Charleston of fifty-four years. Oscar
E. Johnson, . Sr., and his wife were the parents of
six children, of whom Oscar E. Johnson, Jr., is the
eldest, and four of the six are still living.
Oscar £. Johnson attended the grammar and high
schools of his native city and the College of
Charleston, of which he is now a trustee. Upon
leaving school Mr. Johnson engaged in the insur-
ance business, with offices on Broad Street, and
has been in it for fifty years, during which time
he has represented some of the most prominent
and trustworthy companies in the world, and sell-
ing a vast amount of insurance. He has served as
president of the Charleston Board of Underwriters,
the oldest board of underwritcirs continuously in
existence in the United States. He was president
of the State Association of Fire Insurance Agents,
and is therefore one of the best known insurance
men in South Carolina. In 191 1 Mr. Johnson
organized the Southern Home Insurance Company,
of which he was elected president, and which he
is conducting upon lines which have made it a suc-
cess, and firmly established it in the confidence of
the people. He also represents a number of marine
insurance companies and the Department of Insur-
ance for United States shippers, including the fleet
corps. Always interested in Charleston, he has
been active in civic matters and for two terms of
four years each has been a member of the City
Council, and has served on many of the important
committees of the Council. His offices, which are
the finest in the Peoples Building, are occupied by
his force of fourteen assistants. A member of the
Presbyterian Church, he has always given that or-
ganization generous and faithful support.
In 1879 Mr. Johnson was married first to Lila
Boozer, who died in 1887, leaving three children,
namely: Maud, Lila and Lewis. In 1889 Mr. John-
son was married to Maud Boozer, a sister of his
first wife, and they have had one child, Louise,
who married Robert S. Small of Charleston. Lfla
is the wife of A. P. Steele, of Statesville, North
Carolina.
Lewis Johnson, the son, was educated at Qemson
College, South Carolina, after which he studied the
insurance business and now occupies a fine position
in the Alabama insurance field. He married Kath-
leen Dunn, a daughter of Judge Norvell Dunn, of
Jasper, Alabama, and they have two children.
Albert Horace Ninestein. The community of
Blackvillc in Barnwell County recognizes Mr. Nine-
stein as one of its ablest lawyers and best citizens.
Mr. Ninestein has come up to his present position
after many hard struggles and against adversities.
He was born at Palmyra, New York, February
13. 1875, eiphtli among a family of twelve children
born to Edward and Augusta (Naskow) Ninestein.
The parents were both born in the old country and
>vere brought 10 America as children. Albert Hor-
ace Ninestein was thirteen years of age when his
father died,, and the next year he left home to earn
his own way in the world. In succeeding years he
did a great many things. One time his salary was
three dollars and a hsilf a week and he paid three
dollars for board. He not only made a living, but
also sjipplied the deficiencies in his early education,
and earned the money to equip himself for better
and broader things. He studied law in a lawyer's
office, and on December 5, 1907, was admitted to
the bar at Columbia, South Carolma. The same
year he located at Blackville. He reached Black-
ville with his wife and two children, and his entire
capital consisted of $142.00. While he did not know
a person in town he had the training and ability
to make his talents appreciated, and was soon
enjoying a living practice. Since then he has
handled some of the most important cases in Bam-
well County. He has also been honored with the
office of mayor of Blackville, and is now president
of its Chamber of Commerce. He is also city attor-
ney. For the past two years he has been chancel-
lor commander of the Knights of Pythias Lodge.
In October, 1900, he married Miss Florence Jar-
ret, a native of Archdale, North Carolina. They
have a family of six children, Dorothy, Florence,
Edward, Albert, Jr., Theodore and Eleanor.
Edward Walter Hughes. The steady and faith-
ful devotion he has given to the profession of law
for over thirty years has been accompanied with
many honors that have made Mr. Hughes promi-
nent in the public life of his home city of Charles-
ton and in the state.
He was born at Summerville, South Carolina,
April 21, 1864, son of Edward T. and Anna Gillard
(White) Hughes, his ancestors coming from Eng-
land and France and some of them serving in the
Revolutionary army. His father was a banker of
Charleston.
Mr. Hughes attended preparatory schools at
Charleston, was graduated Bachelor of Science
from the University of the South at Sewanee, Ten-
nessee, and in 1885 completed his law course in
the University of Virginia. The following year he
took up the work of his profession at Charleston
and has risen to real distinction as a law}rer. He
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
145
was a member of the Legislature from 1888 to 1894.
From 1894 to 1898 he was assistant United States
attorney, and in 1898 was appointed referee in
bankruptcy, which position he still occupies. He
was a candidate in 1903 for mayor of Charleston,
and was one of two candidates to run in the second
primary, 191 3, for Congress. His name was prom-
inently considered in connection with the federal
judgeship at the time of the appointment of Judge
Ham Smith. He is prominent in club life, and
has been commodore of the Yacht Club, president
of the Country Club and president of the Charles-
ton Club.
February 20, 1890, Mr. Hughes married Miss Vir-
ginia Randolph Pinckney.
Perry McQueen Smoak. While he began his
business career modestly as a clerk in local stores,
Mr. Smoak for twenty years has been one of the
most influential figures in the commercial affairs
of Orangeburg.
He was bom in Orangeburg County August 21,
1869, son of Andrew James and Ann A. (Bair)
Smoak. The Smoak family are of old South Caro-
lina Revolutionary stock. His father was a Confed-
erate soldier and a farmer, and he was the son
of a soldier, the grandfather having spent four years
in the service and was wounded through tlie thigh
by a minie ball at the Battle of Gettysburg. Five
of his sons were also soldiers. At one time he
held a reunion in Orangeburg County, — at which
108 members of the family were present. Perry
McQueen Smoak received a common school edu-
cation, and in early life, began his business
career as clerk in a general store. For four
years he managed the shoe department of the store
of George H. Cornelson at Orangeburg. He engaged
in the wholesale grocery business under the firm
name of Jennings & Smoak in November, 1808. He
was active in that concern until 1910, when he or-
ganized the Orangeburjg Fertilizer Works, aftd thus
gave the city one of its important industries. He
is still president of the Fertilizer Works. His tal-
ents and ability as an organizer have resulted in
several other substantial local enterprises. He or-
ganized the Orangeburg Coca Cola Bottling Com-
pany, the Newberry Coca Cola Company, and the
Orangeburg Packing Company. He is a director
of the Edisto National Bank, and owns and directs
the management of 2,000 acres of farm land.
December 29, 1902, he married Miss Gertrude
Boliver, of Orangeburg. They have two children,
Dorothy McQueen and Perry McQueen, Jr. Mr.
Smoak is a Royal Arch Mason, an Elk« and is a
senior deacon in the First Baptist Church of
Orangeburg.
W. HuGER FiTZ Simons began the practice of law
in his native state of South Carolina thirty-five
years ago, and the success and reputation for abil-
ity now a-ssociated with his name are in proportion
to the length of years spent in close and con-
scientious devotion to his profession.
Mr. Fitz Simons was born in Charleston January
8, 1861, and most of the years of his lifetime have
been spent in his native city. He is a son of Chris-
topher and Susan Milliken (Barker) Fitz Simons,
Vol. V— 10
also natives of Charleston, where his father was a
well known medical practitioner for many years.
The grandfather, Qiristopher Fitz Simons, was also
a native of South Carolina, descended from an
Irish ancestor who came to the Carolinas soon
after the close of the Revolution. The Charleston
lawyer's mother was born at Charleston, a daugh-
ter of Samuel Gaillard Barker, a native of the city
and for many years a lawyer of prominence.
W. Huger Fitz Simons is the fifth of seven chil-
dren, all still living. He graduated from Charles-
ton College in 1881 and spent about a year in a
law office on Wall Street, New York City. Return-
ing to Charleston in 1882, he continued his studies
and was admitted to the bar in 1883, soon after
taking up practice for himself and in 1886 forming
the partnership of Barker, Gilliland & Fitz Simons.
In 1892 he joined George H. MoflFett in practice,
their associatbii continuing until about 1900. Dur-
ing the following fifteen or sixteen years Mr. Fitz
Simons looked after his law business alone and
since 1916 has had as an associate his son Sam-
uel' G.
In January, 1887, Mr. Fitz Simons married Anne
Palmer Cain, a daughter of Maj. William Henry
Cain, of Pinopolis, South Carolina. Their five chil-
dren are James C, W. H., Jr., Samuel G., Mar-
garet and R. C. Three of the sons were soldiers
in the World war. James C. was a first lieutenant
witH the One Hundred and Seventeenth Engineers
in the Forty-second or Rainbow Division, and was
on active duty in France for fourteen months.
Samuel G., now his father's law partner, also served
with the rank of first lieutenant, was an aviator,
and was on duty in France about twenty months.
W. H., Jr., was a first lieutenant of artillery and
later transferred to the Aviation Corps and re-
ceived his "wings" three days after • the signing
of the armistice. The senior Mr. Fitz Simons is
a member of the South Carolina Society and of
the Charleston Ancient Artillery Company.
Hon. Joseph Walker Barnwell is one of the
oldest members of the Charleston bar, having re-
cently rounded out a half century since his admis-
sion to practice. He has enjoyed many honors
both in and out of his profession and his life has
been one of signal usefulness and service.
He was born at Charleston October 31, 1846, a
son of Rev. William H. and Catherine Osborn
Barnwell. He attended private school at Charles-
ton, Beaufort College in 1861, also private schools
at Columbia and The Citadel at Charleston in 1864.
There he was a member of the corps of Cadets
and as such rendered active service to the Con-
federacy and was wounded in the leg in a skirmish
along the Charleston and Savannah Railroad De-
cember 7, 1864. After the war he entered South
Carolina University, and during 1869 studied abroad
at the University of Goettingen, Germany.
Mr. Barnwell was admitted to the bar in 1869,
and along with a large law practice has many times
been called to duty in public offices. He was a
member of the House of Representatives from
Charleston County from 1874 to 1876, and took
an active part in the Hampton campaign. He was
chief of staff to Governor Hagood in 1880 a^nd
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
1882, was senator from Charleston County from
1894 to 1896, and again from 1898 to 1902, declin-
ing further election and was candidate for attorney
general on the Haskell ticket in 1890. In 1895 he
was, together with J. C. Hemphill, William G.
McGowan, John T. Sloan and others, a member
of the committee which met in conference with
Governor Tillman, former Governor Evans, Judge
Ira B. Jones, and Hon. C. M. Efird, representing
the Tillman faction, the object of the conference
being to bring about an agreement between the
opposing factions, whereby the Constitutional Con-
vention, which was about to meet, might be con-
ducted upon a non-partisan basis and in the
broader interests of the public welfare, and while
such an agreement was easily arrived at, it was not
carried out by the faction then in power. Mr. Barn-
well took a prominent part in the restoration of
Charleston after the earthquake of 1886, serving as
chairman of the relief committee. He was chair-
man of the democratic party of his county in 1880,
and has been an official of the Charleston Library
Society, the South Carolina Historical Society, and
the Charleston Club. He has spent many years of
earnest and successful effort in promoting and sus-
taining the Charleston Library Society. While not
the author of any history of the state, he has con-
tributed many interesting and valuable articles to
the magazine published, by the South Carolina His-
torical Society, and has delivered many notable
addresses before literary, patriotic, and educational
associations of the state.
January 17, 1900, occurred the death of his wife,
whose name was Harriott Kinloch Cheves, daugh-
ter of Dr. Charles M. Cheves. The surviving chil-
dren of Colonel and Mrs. Barnwell are: Capt.
Joseph W. Barnwell, Jr., now with the State High-
way Department at Columbia; Charles Edmund
Barnwell, of New Orleans; and a daughter, Har-
riott Kinloch, wife of Esmond Phelps, Esq., of
the New Orleans bar.
Thomas Hiller Dreher, A. M., M. D. To speak
of him merely in the terms of nearly thirty years
of steady medical practice, the greater part of the
time at St. Matthews, would be doing an injustice
to the broad usefulness and influence of Doctor
Dreher in that community. A skillful man in his
profession, he has also turned his versatile talents
into other avenues presenting means of doing good
to his community and the people of his home state.
Many people outside of Calhoun County who
know nothing of him as a physician have read and
been influenced by his published views and writ-
ings. Doctor Dreher has the gift of literary skill
and a splendid facility in translating his experiences
and well matured judgment into concise and enter-
taining language. Recently he contributed to a
number of the American Lutheran Survey an article
entitled "Experiences of an Exemption Board Chair-
man," in which he describes a number of the in-
cidents that came under his observation and which
indicate both the weak and the strong qualities of
a community engaged in war. Doctor Dreher as
a "rock-bottom democrat" is a man of decided in-
dependence of opinion and an original thinker, as
is well indicated in the views he expressed in pages
of the Manufacturers Record in opposition to the
ratification of the League of Nations treaty. Intro-
ductory to the article which he contributed to the
Record the editor gave a concise description of the
author in the following words: "Dr. T. H. Dreher
is a prominent physician of South Carolina. He was
County Democratic Chairman for many years in
his county and chairman of the board of trustees
of St. Matthews School for a long time. He was
also chairman of the Local Exemption Board dur-
ing the entire war. Doctor Dreher has always
taken a prominent part in public affairs."
He was born near Irmo in Lexington Count}',
South Carolina, November nth, 1861, a son of
Jacob W. and Anne A. (Hiller) Dreher. His
Dreher ancestors came out of Germany and settled
in Lexington County in the colonial period, lome
years before the Revolutionary war. Their home
was in the vicinity of the present town of Irmo.
Doctor Dreher acquired his early training at
home, and on January i, 1880, matriculated in New-
berry College, where he was graduated with first
honors in 1885. The following four years he re-
mained as principal of the preparatory departmerr
of Newberry College.
He studied medicine in the College of Physicians
and Surgeons, now the medical department of the
University of Maryland, graduating in 1891. After
a brief practice at Lexington he established his home
in St. Matthews Parish, then in Orangeburg, now
the county seat of Calhoun County. Doctor Dreher
took a leading part in the campaign for the organi-
zation of the County of Calhoun, was president of
the new county association and when the new county
was organized was made county chairman of the
Democratic Executive Committee, serving as such
until 1916. He held for several years the position
of chairman of the Board of Trustees of St. Mat-
thews Grade and High schools, and has been vice-
president of The Home Bank of St. Matthews smce
its organization. He is a member of the County,
State and American Medical associations and is an
ex-president of the District Medical Society. He
was reared a Lutheran but for many years past has
been active in the Methodist Church.
Doctor Dreher married Miss Frances Wanna-
maker, daughter of the late Captain Francis Wanna-
maker of St. Matthews. Articles on other pages
give in detail the career of her father and other
members of this noted family of Calhoun County.
Augustine T. Smythe is a lawyer and well
known business man of Charleston and bears the
same name as his honored father, with whom he
was associated in practice for a time. Consider-
ing their career together the name has been a dis-
tinctive one in the legal, civic and business life
of Charleston for over half a century.
The late Augustine T. Smythe, who died in 1914^
was born at Charleston October 5. 1842, son of
Rev. Thomas and Margaret M. (Adger) Smyth.
Rev. Thomas Smyth, D. D., came from Belfast,
Ireland, in 1830 and for over forty years was
pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church of
Charleston. He was also a gifted speaker and
writer. Margaret M. Adger was a daughter of
James Adger, who came from County Antrim, Ire-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
147
land, in 1790. The names Sni3rthe and Adger have
for a century been conspicuous in the business,
professional and all the varied interests of the
City of Charleston.
Augustine Thomas Smythe always acknowledged
a great debt to his parents and next to them to
Professor Sachtleben, whose excellent private
school he attended as a boy. In i860 he entered
South Carolina College, and remained a student
until he entered the arnriy. As a member of the
College Cadets he assisted in the defense of
Charleston Harbor at the first attack on Fort
Sumter. In 1862 he was mustered into the regular
Confederate army as a member of the Washing-
ton Light Infantry, which became Company A of
the Twenty-Fifth South Carolina Volunteers. He
was with that organization until the close of the
war. doing duty in the Charleston defenses and
at the end of the war was a member of a Cavalry
Brigade. After the war he accepted his own pov-
erty as the common lot of the South and endured
a time of stress and struggle until he could be-
come established in his profession. He studied law
in the office of Siraonton & Barker at Charleston
and was admitted to the bar in 1867. He at once
began practice and continued active in the pro-
fession for nearly half a century. For a number
of years he was senior partner in the well known
firm of Smythe, Lee & Frost.
From 1880 to 1894 he was member of the State
Senate, and during a large part of that time was
chairman of the judiciary committee. In earlier
years he was the president of the Pioneer Fire
Company, one of the volunteer fire companies of
his city, and always kept up an interest in the local
militia, serving for a number of years as major
of the Washington Light Infantry. He was also
prominent in Masonry, being grand master of the
Grand Lodge and grand high priest of the Grand
Chapter and commander of South Carolina Com-
mandery No. i. He was also a thirty-second
degree Scottish Rite Mason. From 1890 to 1896
he served as a trustee of South Carolina College
and was a trustee of Clemson Agricultural College
from 1900 to 1906. He was the first commodore
and one of the organizers of the Carolina Yacht
Oub, and at one time was president of the Hiber-
nian Society. For many years and until his death
he was an elder in the Presbyterian Church. On
June 27, 1865, he married Miss Louisa McCord, of
Columbia. She was a daughter of Col. D. J.
McCord, prominent as a lawyer, and the grand-
daughter of Judge Langdon Cheves.
Augustine T. Smythe, Sr., left surviving him
three daughters and two sons. The eldest of his
surviving sons is the Rev. L. Cheves McC. Smythe,
who has been a missionary of the Presbyterian
Church for several years in Japan, and who was
during the World war with the Red Cross in
Russia. Mr. Smythe is a graduate of the Univer-
sity of Virginia, where he received an M. A. de-
gree, and of Princeton Theological Seminary. In
1916 he married Miss Mary Fletcher, daughter of
Judge James H. Fletcher, of Accomac, Virginia.
The daughters are Louisa C.,'wife of Samuel G.
Stoney, of Charleston; Hannah McC, wife of
Anton P. Wright, of Savannah, Georgia; and Susan
S., wife of John Bennett, of Charleston.
Augustine T. Smythe, Jr., the younger son, was
born at Charleston, January 25, 1885, and was
graduated in 1903 from the University School of
Charleston. He received his Bachelor of Arts
degree from the University of Virginia in 1907 and
in 1909 completed his preparation for law in the
Harvard Law School. He was admitted to the bar
the same year and began practice at Charleston
with his father's firm, Smythe, Lee & Frost. He
is now a member of the firm Smythe & Visanska.
Mr. Smythe is a director of the Southern Home
Insurance Company, Charleston Savings Institu-
tion, Dime Bank and Trust Company, and has many
other business connections. He is a member of the
Carolina Yacht Club and is a Mason and Knight
of Pythias.
He married Harriott Ravenel Buist, a daughter
of the well known Charleston citizen and lawyer,
Henry Buist. They have two children, Frances R.
and Augustine, Jr.
William Elijah Free began the practice of law
at Bamberg in 1908, and has a substantial general
practice and also a good business in real estate at
Bamberg.
He was born in Bambere County July 3i» 1S76.
His people have lived in that section of the old
Barnwell District, now Bamberg County for several
generations. His grandfather, Jacob E. Free, was
a native of Barnwell County, served as a Confeder-
ate soldier, and before the war was a planter and
slave holder. His wife. Elizabeth (Dowling) Free,
was a dau^ter of William B. Dowling, who was
the son of Elijah Dowling, the grandfather of Ellen
E. (Dowling) Cox so that Mr. W. E. Free's great-
great-grandfather on both his father's and mother's
side was both one and the same man. Both the
Free and the Dowling branches of the family are
of Revolutionary stock, the former being of Irish
descent and the latter of Scotch descent. A brother
of Elijah Dowling settled in the pre-Revolutionary
period in what is now Darlington County. Elijah
Dowling was a lieutenant in the Continental army.
The late Charles Benjamin Free, father of the
Bamberg lawyer, was owner of extensive planting
interests, employing many people. He was born
July 6, 1852, and died December 24, 1914. He was
the first clerk of court of Bamberg County, begin-
ning his official duties in 1897 and holding the office
uninterruptedly until his death. He never had oppo-
sition in election after the first time. His wife was
Sallie Dowling, a native of Barnwell County, and
a daughter of A. J. and Ellen E. (Dowling) Cox.
She was born in 1856 and died in 1896, the mother
of four sons and two daughters. Charles B. Free
was three times married. His second wife was
Amanda R. Stephens, who became the mother of
two children, while his third marriage was to Lizzie
M. Jenkins. To the third union were born two
daughters. Of these ten children in all nine reached
mature years and are still living.
William Elijah Free was educated in the high
school at Bamberg, attended Furman University at
Greenville for three years and studied law in the
office of the late John R. Bellinger. He was ad-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
mitted to the bar in January, 1908, and since then
has been busily engaged at Bamberg. For seven
years he was a member of the law firm of Mayfield
& Free, since which time he has practiced ilone.
He also operates in real estate and loans and is a
stockholder, director and counsel for the First Na-
tional Bank of Bamberg, and a stockholder in the
Bamberg Banking Company.
June 17, 1909, he married Miss Birdie Gill, daugh-
ter of W. T. and Senie (Brown) Gill of Bamberg,
one of the old and original South Carolina families.
He has two sons, William E., Jr., born July 17, 191 1.
and Joseph D., born July 13, 1915. Mr. Free is a
trustee and treasurer of the Baptist Church, and a
member of the Executive Board of the Barnwell
Baptist Association.
Peter Lowry Lea. The most elaborate history
is perforce a merciless abridgment, the historian
being obliged to select his facts and materials from
manifold details and to marshal them in concise
and logical order. In every life of honor and
usefulness there is no dearth of interesting situa-
tions and incidents, and yet in summing up such
a career as that of Mr. Lea, the writer must needs
touch only on the more salient facts, giving the
keynote of the character and eliminating all that
is superfluous to the continuity of the narrative.
The gentleman whose name appears above has led
an active and useful life, not entirely void of excit-
ing events, but the more prominent have been so
identified with the useful and practical that it is
to them almost entirely that the writer refers in
the following paragraphs.
Peter Lowry Lea, a well known and successful
merchant at Burton, South Carolina, was born in
Sumter (now Lee) County, South Carolina, on
April 9, 1863, and is the son of William P. aiid
Saphronia (Carter) Lea. William P. Lea was a
native of North Carolina, who later became a resi-
dent of Charleston, South (Tarolina, but who fol-
lowed the sea for many years. His father, William
Lea, was a native of Virginia. The subject's
mother was a native of Charleston, of which city
her father was an early settler. He was a con-
tractor, and among the many early structures
erected by him there was the historic Bank of
Charleston. The subject of this sketch is the third
in order of birth of the five children who were
born to his parents.
Peter L. Lea attended the public schools of
Charleston, and was a student in the old St. Phil-
lips Street School. At the age of fourteen years
he began a seafaring career, and after spending
four years before the mast he, at the age of eight-
een years, entered an apprenticeship at Port Royal
as pilot. During the following twenty years he
followed the sea as pilot, and gained a reputation
as a man of unusually high qualifications in that
line. However, in 1899 Mr. Lea decided to spend
the remainder of his life on solid land and engaged
in the mercantile business at Burton, Beaufort
County, where he is still engaged. He has by strict
attention to business and catering to the wants of
his patrons built up a large and representative
patronage, and has been successful even beyond
his anticipations. He carries a general line of
goods of well selected grades and his evident de-
sire to please his customers and his uniformly
courteous treatment of them has gained for him
an enviable reputation. In addition to his mer-
cantile interests Mr. Lea is also the owner of about
150 acres of excellent truck land, on which he
raises all the crops of vegetables common to this
locality. He is also a stockholder in the Southern
Furniture Company of Charleston, of which he is
the vice president. *
Mr. Lea has been married twice, first in 1887, to
Sarah Hay, to which union was born a daughter,
Lilla, who is now the wife of R. A. Long, Jr., of
Beaufort, South Carolina. Mr. Lea's second mar-
riage was with Eva Fink and they are the parents
of two children, Peter L., Jr., and Eva Hampton.
Fraternally Mr. Lea is a member of the Ancient
Free and Accepted Masons, in which he has
attained the degrees of the Royal Arch, and to
the Knights of Pythias. He has tiken a commend-
able interest in local public affairs, though with-
out ambition for public office, but he gives his
support to every movement having for its object
the betterment of the community in any way. Be-
cause of his fine personal qualities and business
success he enjoys to a marked degree the confi-
dence and esteem of the entire community.
Thomas Frederick Brantley has practiced law
in his native city of Orangeburg since 1896. He
has also been a member of both branches of the
Legislature, and as a political leader and speaker has
been an important aid in several democratic na-
tional campaigns.
He was bom at Orangeburg January 28, 1867,
a son of Ellison W. and Angelina (Ulmer) Brant-
ley. His mother's ancestry included men who were
soldiers in the Colonial and Revolutionary wars.
Ellison W. Brantley was a farmer. The son grew
up on his father's farm and early learned the toil
of the fields. He was two years old when his
mother died, and many of the influences that shaped
his early life were supplied by his grandmother. As
a boy he looked beyond the farm to a career, and
as a preliminary step in his progress he borrowed
the money that enabled him to attend the famous
Bingham Preparatory School in North Carolina.
In 1892 he graduated A. B. from the South
Carolina University. He was prominent as a de-
bater in the university, won the debater's medal
from his society, and was a member of the Pi Kappa
Alpha Fraternity. He next entered the law depart-
ment of Georgetown University at Washington, and
graduated LL. B. in 1905. He was one of the
Georgetown Debating Team which carried off
the honors in contest with Columbian Univer-
sity. While at Washington he was appointed chief
of division of the Treasury Department, winning
that appointment after examination. He was dis-
missed from this office because of his activity in
behalf of the election of W. J. Bryan in 1896. On
leaving Washington he returned to Orangeburg and
has since been busy in a general practice. In 1898
he was elected a member of the Legislature and
re-elected the following vear, and in 1902 was chosen
a member of the State Senate. He resigned that
office to become a candidate for Congress. He was
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
149
a delegate to the democratic convention at Denver
in 1908, where he again warmly supported Bryan
as a candidate for the presidency, and was a mem-
ber of the Notification Committee. Mr. Brantley
is a member of the Baptist Church.
Mr. Brantley still owns the original home settle-
ment, which was acquired prior to the Revolution-
ary war by Mr. Brantley's great-great-grandfather
and which has been handed down to successive gen-
erations until the present time. It is still one of
the old landmarks of this section of the county and
is located about seven miles cast of the Orange-
burg courthouse. It is in the famous "Four Holes"
section referred to frequently in Simm's historical
novels of South Carolma. Mr. Brantley's father,
Ellison W. Brantley, was one of the leaders of the
Ku Klux Clan which did so much toward the res-
toration of South Carolina to white rule. Going
back in the geneological tree, Mr. Brantley dates his
ancestry to Swiss-German origin, this ancestry
settling in this immediate section about 1740.
April 26, 1905, Thomas F. Brantley married Miss
Estelle Fairey, daughter of John W. Fairey of
Orangeburg. They have four children: Mary Elli-
son Brantley, Henrietta Estelle Brantley, Thomas
F. Brantley and John W. Brantley.
Mr. Brantley is a Mason: a member of Orange-
burg Lodge of Elks, of which he is a past exalted
ruler; and a member of the Uniform Rank Knights
of Pythias, of which he is past chancellor com-
mander. .
He is at present engaged in the practice of law
in Orangeburg County, and is the head member of
the firm of Brantley and Zeigler, which is one of
the leading firms in that part of the state.
Capt. Thomas S. Sinkler. A capacity for
sticking to a purpose and confining one's efforts
to a single line of endeavor brings about very
desirable results in most instances, and especially
is this true in the case of Capt Thomas S. Sinkler,
who, beginning his business career in his present
concern, has risen from office boy to be part owner
of the wholesale coal company of Johnson, Sinkler
& Stone, one of the leading firms of its kind at
Charleston. Captain Sinkler was born in Berkeley
County, South Carolina, January 7, 1861, a son
of William Sinkler, and grandson of James Sink-
ler, who was bom in Scotland, but came to the
United States and located in Berkeley County,
South Carolina. William Sinkler was born at St.
Johns, South Carolina, and he was married to
Mary Simons, born at Charleston, a daughter of
Dr. Thomas Y. Simons, one of the skilled phy-
sicians of a past generation, and a native of Charles-
ton, his family having been founded in this city in
the very earliest days of its history. There were
ten children in the family bom to William Sinkler
and his wife, all of whom are living.
When he was a lad Thomas S. Sinkler was
brought to Charleston by his parents and was edu-
cated in Porter's Military Academy. Entering upon
a commercial career, he has been in the employ of
but one concern, and his persistence and faithful-
ness have been rewarded by his steady advance-
ment, and he now owns a half interest in the
business. This concern does a very large foreign
business, and also handles coal at retail, and the
annual sales are enormous.
In 1887 Mr. Sinkler was united in marriage with
Caroline Finley, a daughter of W. W. and Carrie
(Glover) Finley, members of one of the prominent
families of Charleston. Mr. and Mrs. Sinkler have
three children, namely: Thomas S., who is a
graduate of West Point and a captain in the regu-
lar United States Army; Caroline, who is the widow
of Watson C. Finger, lives at Charleston; and
Allen, who lives at home. Hr. Sinkler is a direc-
tor of the Security Bank, his connection with
it being of long standing. Fraternally he belongs
to the Knights of P3rthias. His social connections,
which are very pleasant, are with the Charleston,
the Charleston Country, and the Charleston Yacht
clubs. For many years he has been a consistent
member of St. Philip's Church of Charleston.
During the great war Mr. Sinkler rendered signal
service to his country in the Charleston Reserve
Corps, Charleston Light Dragoons, of which he is
still captain. Not only did he assist in organizing
this company, but through his personal example
and enthusiasm brought his men into a high state
of efficiency, and won from them and the community
generally a respect which -will not be forgotten. In
days which tried men's souls and brought out their
real selves, Mr. Sinkler proved his metal, and earned
the right to be accpunted one of the^ true-blue Amer-
ican citizens and patriots, whose deeds are as wor-
thy of perpetuation on the pages of history as arc
those of the ones who had the privilege of going to
the front.
Joseph Blain Cash, M. D. The community in
and around Chesnee, in both Spartanburg and Cher-
okee counties, has many reminders of the business
enterprise and public spirit of the Cash family.
Dr. Joseph Blain Cash has recently undertaken to
give Chesnee a model private hospital, affording
increased facilities for his own extended practice
as a physician and surgeon and an institution which
would do credit to a large city.
Doctor Cash is a son of Columbus Cash, who has
long been one of the leading business men and
property owners in the Chesnee community. He
was born two miles east of Chesn>se, in what is now
Cherokee County. He came to manhood in very
humble circumstances. He had no regular school-
ing, and by plowing for small wages and by many
severe struggles he finally got started, and the
struggling years have given place to prosperity until
he is now one of the largest and wealthiest land
owners in Spartanburg and Cherokee counties. He
operates several fine farms. Columbus Cash is
owner of an historic spot in South Carolina, of in-
terest not only to this state but to the nation. This
is the Cowpens battle ground, not far from Chesnee,
and included in a farm of about four hundred acres
owned by Columbus Cash. Every American school
child knows of the battle of Cowpens as one of
the marks of progress by the American armies in
their struggle for independence. Recently Colum-
bus Cash set aside five acres- of his land as a gift
to the Daughters of the American Revolution, and
thus the scene of the battle will become a perma-
nent park, with a suitable monument erected there-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
on. Columbus Cash owned all of the land on which
the village of Chesnee is located, and still has much
s>i the valuable property in that village.
l^r. Jpscph Blain Cash, who it a son of Colum-
1)US and Susan (King) Cash, was born February
25, 1891, two miles southeast of Chesnee. He took
several courses in the Wofford Fitting School at
Spartanburg, and afterward continued the regular
study of medicine in the Atlanta Medical College,
xiow the Medical Department of Emory University.
He was graduated in 1914. For four and a half
JTionths he did post-c^raduate work at Tulane Uni-
versity in New Orleans and also spent five months
in the New York Polyclinic and three months in
1^ Grady Hospital at Atlanta. He had b^gun the
practice of his profession in the meantime at Ches-
nee in 1914. His abilities and experience have led
him more and more to the practice of surgery. He
has been ambitious not only to succeed but to excel
in his profession. Pending the building and com-
pleting of his new private hospital, Doctor Cash
in July, 1919, entered the New York Lying-in Hos-
pital for a six months* course.
He began the construction work on his new hos-
pital at Chesnee about the firsf of July, ipiQ- It
is a modern new brick -building, two stories and ■
basement, the building and equipment costing about
sixty thousand dollars. It exemplifies all the mod-
ern ideas of hospital construction and is on an ideal
site, comprising nearly two acres on a gently slop-
ing elevation in the east part of the town of Chesnee.
Jt has the pure atmosphere of the upper Carolina
region, pure water, and otherwise is an ideal place
for treatment and convalescence. The hospital will
be open to all classes of patients except those suffer-
ing from contagious diseases. Just recently Doctor
Cash has incorporated the hospital with a capital
stock of $75,000.00. and it will be known as Moun-
tain View Hospital. This will be completed and
ready for patients on the ist of July, 1920.
Doctor Cash, like his father, owns valuable busi-
ness property in Chesnee and much farming land,
and has ample financial resources for carrying out
any enterprise in which he embarks.
Charles R. Valk, vice president and treasurer
of the Charleston Dry Dock and Machine Company,
is one of the substantial men of Charleston. He
was born at Compo, Connecticut, on October 6.
1848, a son of Charles P. L. Valk, a .native of
Charleston who moved to Connecticut and there
died. His widow returned to Charleston, bringing
with her Charles R., then but one year old. He
grew up at Charleston and attended the Octavius
Porcher School at Abbeville, South Carolina. At
the age of fifteen years he entered the Confederate
army in the Third South Carolina State Troops.
Colonel Goodwin's regiment, but after six months'
service peace was declared between the states, and
he returned to Charleston.
His military experience made him feel too old for
school, so he began an apprenticeship in the foun-
dry of William S. Henerey. and was there from
1866 to 1870, when he became superintendent for
the Stono Phosphate Company. In 187 1 he formed
a partnership with J. Ralph Smith under the style
of Smith & V^lk, which continued until the name
of the Valk & Murdoch Iron Works was adopted,
of which Mr. Valk was made president. The plant
was moved to the foot of Calhoun Street, and
later the business was reorganized as the Valk &
Murdoch Company, and again as the Charleston
Dry Dock and Machine Company. The company
does a general marine business and gives employ-
ment to 400 people, its annual volume of product
showing a healthy increase.
In 1889 Mr. Valk was united in marriage with
Miss E. F. We3rman, of New York City, and they
have three children, namely: Elizabeth, who is the
wife of G. Lee Holmes; Martha Lawrence and
Courtney.
Mr. Valk is chairman of the Hampton Park As-
sociation, vice president of the William Austin
Home, and is identified with other organizations in
the city. A man of wide outlook and unusual capa-
bilities, he has risen to be a strong factor for good
in his community. The same enthusiasm which sent
him a youth of fifteen years into the army has car-
ried hiip on in many a conflict with conditions which
did not meet with his approval, and in most in-
stances brought him through a victor, for right
was always on his side. Deprived of a father's
fostering care so early in life, he has had neces-
sarily to make his own way in the world, but early
hardships have but developed his character and
strengthened his resistance, and he feels that he is
all the better for having to earn his living by the
"sweat of his brow."
Hon. James Willard Ragsdale. A great loss to
South Carolina and the nation was experienced in
the death of James Willard Ragsdale, which oc-
curred at Washington July 23, 1919, while he was
in the midst of his duties as representative from
the Sixth South Carolina District in Congress. He
was in his fourth consecutive term in Congress, and
his work and influence were greatly appreciated
both by his fellow members in the House of Repre-
sentatives and the Senate.
Mr. Ragsdale for many years had been a promi-
nent lawyer and banker at Florence, and in that
city and in Eastern Carolina his friends and sup-
porters were most numerous. Mr. Ragsdale was
born at Timmonsville, South Carolina, December
14, 1872, son of Littleton Russell and Ellen Adelaide
(Bird) Ragsdale. His mother was a daughter of
Doctor Byrd of Timmonsville, a greatly beloved
physician and citizen. J. W. Ragsdale acquired his
iarly education in the schools of Timmonsville and
at Darlington. For several years he lived at Wil-
mington, North Carolina, where he was employed
in the general offices of the Atlantic Coast Line
Railway Company. As a student in the University
of South Carolina he studied law under the late
Doctor Pope, and began practice at Florence. He
was a law partner of Judgp Shipp and later of
R. E. Whiting and D. G. Baker, under the firm name
Ragsdale, Baker & Whiting. Mr. Ragsdale was re-
garded as one of the ablest criminal lawyers of the
state. As a banker he organized the Farmers and
Mechanics Bank of Florence, and was its president
at the time of his death, and also was a director
of the Citizens Bank of Timmonsville, and the
People's Bank of Darlington. He owned and con-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
151
ducted several of the finest farms in Florence and
Darlington counties.
Mr. Ragsdale early entered politics, and was
elected to the Legislature from Florence County for
two terms and afterwards served as a member of
the State Senate. He resigned from the Senate
to make the race for attorney general, but was
efeated in that campaign. His first aspirations for
a seat in Congress were also defeated by J. E.
Ellerbe, whom he finally succeeded in 19 13. Among
other important committees he served on the Com-
mittee on Foreign Affairs. Mr. Ragsdale was a
Methodist, was a trustee of the South Carolina In-
dustrial School, and was a member of the Columbia
Club of South Carolina and the Army and Navy
Qub of Washington.
November 15, 1900, he married Marie Louise
Joynes, of Columbia, daughter of the late Dr.
Edward Southey Joynes, the distinguished South
Carolina educator whose career is briefly sketched
elsewhere. Mr. Ragsdale was survived by two chil-
dren: James, aged eighteen, and Marie, aged four-
teen.
Besides the many tributes paid the life and work
of Mr. Ragsdale by members of Congress and of
his home community, the following interesting com-
ments are found in an article by the Washington
correspondent of the Columbia State:
"It is probable that from the time Mr. Ragsdale
entered Congress as the successor to the late J. E.
Ellerbe of Marion until the death of Mrs. Ragsdale's
father, the late Dr. E. S. Joynes of Columbia, no
one entertained official and social Washington more
elegantly and lavishly than he and Mrs. Ragsdale.
Their first home in the fashionable section of Wash-
ington, on Connecticut Avenue, was often the scene
of magnificent functions, and later when they moved
to the old William J. Bryan residence, Calumet
Place, this entertainment was continued. About a
year and a half ago, upon the death of Doctor
Jo>'nes, this public entertaining naturally ceased for
a time and Mrs. Ragsdale since then has mostly
remained at her home at Florence.
"Mr. Ragsdale's influence in certain departments
of Washington was frequently commented upon. It
was often stated that he could get more appoint-
ments for his constituents from the state depart-
ment than almost any other member of the House.
There are now many men from South Carolina in
the diplomatic service due to his efforts. There
was also a strong link between Mr. Ragsdale and the
War Department, and during the momentous days
of the war he landed many excellent assignments
for men from South Carolina in various depart-
ments of the service. He was especially close to
General Enoch Crowder, judge advocate general of
the army and provost marshal general.
"It has frequently been noted in Washington that
Mr. Ragsdale was always willing to do whatever he
could for any man from South Carolina if it came
to his knowledge that his services were needed, and
during the early days of his official career he took
the initiative in this matter and stamped himself
as being always at the command of any South Caro-
linian with a worthy cause.
"Mr. Ragsdale was close to the late Senator Till-
man, and last summer, just before Senator Tillman's
death, Mr. Ragsdale had under consideration for
some time the question of entering the race for the
United States Senate, but always said that he never
would do so while Senator Tillman was a candidate.
As events of last year turned out, the situation
developed so that after Senator Tillman's death
it was too late for Mr. Ragsdale to enter the race.
He had many urgent suggestions from friends in
different parts of the state offering their support
in the event that he should become a candidate. His
loyalty to Senator Tillman was unquestioned and
remained so throughout his life and that of the
Senator."
Edward Southey Joynes, M. A., LL. D., who
died in Columbia, South Carolina, June 18, 191 7,
was one of America's most distinguished educators.
He was born in Accomack County, Virginia,
March 2, 1834. He was a son of Thomas R. and
Anne Bell (Satchell) Joynes, a grandson of Maj.
Levin Joynes of the Continental army, and a de-
scendant of some of the .earliest English settlers on
the eastern shore of the Old Dominion. After re-
ceiving his preparatory training at the celebrated
Concord Academy,. Virginia, and at Delaware Col-
lege, he entered the University of Virginia in 1850,
and graduated from that institution with the degree
of A. B. in 1852 and M. A. the following year.
On his graduation in 1853, he was appointed
Assistant Professor of Ancient Languages,
under the distinguished Dr. Gessner Harrison,
and remained at the University of Virginia in
this capacity until 1856. To prepare himself more
completely for his life-work, he then went to the
University of Berlin, 1856-1858, where he studied
under the most famous professors then living.
While still abroad, he was, in 1858, elected Pro-
fessor of Greek and German in William and Mary
College. Here, in Williamsburg, Virginia, long
famed for its brilliant social life, he met, and mar-
ried, December 14, 1859, Miss Eliza Waller Vest.
To this union were born four children: Capt.
Walker W. Joynes, of the United States Revenue
Cutter Service; Mrs. Alex. G. Fite. of Nashville,
Tennessee; Mrs. Robert Macfarlan of Darlingtop,
South Carolina; and Mrs., J. Willard Ragsdale, of
Florence, South Carolina.
In 1861 William and Mary College having closed,
Professor Joynes was appointed chief clerk in the
Confederate States War Department ip Richmond,
where he served until 1864. From 1864 to 1865
he taught Modern Languages in Hollins Institute,
Virginia. In 1866 he became Professor of Modern
Languages and English in Washington College (now
Washington and Lee University) at Lexington, Vir-
ginia, and regarded his service under Gen. Robt.
E. Lee, who was president of the college, as the
greatest privilege of his life. In 1875 he was elected
Professor of Modern Languages and English in
Vandcrbilt University, and in 1878 to the same chair
in the University of Tennessee. The degree of
LL. D. was conferred upon him by Delaware
College in 1875, and by William and Mary
in 1878. In 1882 he entered upon his duties as
Professor of Modern Languages and English at the
South Carolina College, and continued his work
there until he was retired by the Carnegie Board
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
in 1908, after fifty- four years of educational work,
for "unusual and distinguished services as Professor
of Modem Languages/' He was at once made
Professor Emeritus of the University of South Car-
olina.
In addition to his long service as professor, Doc-
tor Joynes was distinguished as a successful author
of many well known text-books in German and
French, which are now regarded as classics in the
world of letters, and are used all over America.
Of these, the most important are his well known
frammars of German and French; his "Maria
tuart" in German, and his "La Mare au Diable"
in French.
Doctor Joynes was always deeply interested in
public school work in Virginia, Tennessee, and
South Carolina. He assisted in founding and or-
ganizing the graded school system in South Caro-
lina, and was one of the founders and trustees of
Winthrop College. It was due to his untiring
efforts that the University charter was secured for
the South Carolina College. This fact is referred
to in the dedication of the Year Book for 1907, as
follows :
"To Dr. Edward Southey Joynes, Professor of
Modern Languages, eminent as teacher and scholar,
a distinguished author, patron of the Literary Socie-
ties, and 'Father of the University,' this volume is
affectionately dedicated."
As a conversationalist Doctor ^oynes was bril-
liant and fascinating, as a writer he was an
acknowledged master of English prose; as a teacher
he was scholarly and inspiring. His varied attain-
ments and charming personality drew around him
an admiring circle of devoted friends. A cultured
gentleman of the Old South, he was imbued with
the youthful zeal and progressive spirit of the New
South. His long experience as an educator, the
text-books which came from his pen, and the ripe
scholarship which characterized his writings and
addresses, made him more than a state figure, — ^he
was known nationally. His is a name mentioned
with reverence and affection wherever scholars are
gathered together, a name that is a synonym for
sound learning, pre-eminent ability, and scholarly
production.
The New York Nation says of Doctor Joynes:
"Probably few, if any American professors, have
personally taught so many students in foreign
tongues, and certainly no other American professor
has so widely influenced the study of Modern Lan-
guages in America."
Thomas Calvin Stevenson has been an engineer
for a quarter of a century, and as president of the
Charleston Engineering and Contracting Company
has been identified with many important constructive
enterprises, both private and public works, in
Charleston and up and down the coast.
Mr. Stevenson was born in Chester County, South
Carolina, September 3, 1873. His father was Daniel
R. Stevenson. HJs mother, Nancy Beaty, was born
in Fairfield County, South Carolina, a daughter of
James Beaty, a native of Ireland, of Scotch-Irish
parentage. Thomas C. Stevenson was the youngest
m a family of seven children, five of whom are still
living. He completed his education at The Citadel
at Charleston, graduating in 1894. He then took
up engineering as a Government empk)ye, and spent
several years in fortification work. He then en-
tered contract construction, and in 1910 organized
the Charleston Engineering and Contracting Com-
pany, of which he has been president Mr. J. A.
McCormack is secretary-treasurer.
Mr. Stevenson married in 1904 Miss Nell Wil-
liams, of Alabama. They have five sons, Thomas
C, Jr., Jere W., Dan R., Fred W. and Norman W.
Mr. Stevenson is a Mason and member of the
Chamber of Commerce, and is an elder in the West-
minster Presbyterian Church.
Benjamin Mason Anderson was a son of the
late Maj. Franklin L. Anderson. His father was
distinguished as a Confederate soldier and officer,
and one of the finest representatives of tWe chivalry
and ideals of the South. Major Anderson during
the greater part of his life lived at the beautiful
ancestral estate of the Anderson family. Holly Hill,
in Spartanburg County.
At Holly Hill, one of the beautiful landmarks of
upper South Carolina, Benjamin Mason Anderson
was bom September 9, 1874. As noted in the sketch
of Major Anderson, he was a child of his father's
second marriage, his mother being Ada Eppes.
Though Benjamin Mason Anderson died Septem-
ber 13, 1918, at the age of forty- four, in a com-
paratively brief career he had emulated the high
character of his honored father and left a record of
good citizenship and practical achievement that g^ives
his name a lasting affection in the hearts of Spar-
tanburg County people. He was liberally educated,
and became inspired with (lis responsibilities and
opportunities for service to the agricultural devel-
opment of his region. It was the part he played as
a farmer that constitutes his best business achieve-
ment. He was long regarded as an authority on the
subject of agriculture, and his extensive farms were
and are today models of progressive culture and
management in the Piedmont section. H^ always
believed that farming was one of the highest voca-
tions which can command the services of men, and
he took pride in stud3dng it from a scientific stand-
point and adopting every progressive device to the
handling of his own property and encouraging his
neighbors in similar progressive systems. The coun-
try home where he lived with his family and where
he died was in the Reidville section of Spartanburg
County.
His work and influence were by no means con-
fined to his immediate possessions. He regarded
the interests of his home community as his own,
and was always willing to perform service for the
upbuilding of the county and state. He was reared
in the old home church of the Anderson family,
the Nazareth Church of the Presbyterian denom-
ination. At the time of his death he was an elder
in the Reidville Presbyterian Church, this organiza-
tion having grown out of Nazareth. His funeral
services were conducted in the church where he had
worshiped in earliest childhood.
Mr. Anderson married Miss Mary Philson of
Clinton, South Carolina. She and five children sur-
vive, the children being Kathryn, Sadie, Henrietta,
Benjamin and Mary Agnes Anderson. Mrs. Ander-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
153
son <was well educated for the responsibilities she
has carried since her marriage, and has radiated a
wonderful influence in her home and has also shown
the qualities of good business judgment. She has
been a worker in many women's organizations in the
county, both church and patriotic.
Capt. Hakry Ogier Withington, a prominent
young Charleston business man, was commander of
the Motor Battalion of the One Hundred and Fifth
Ammunition Train practically the entire time this
splendid body of Charleston soldiers were on active
duty in France, from July, 1918, until after the
signing of the armistice.
Captain Withington Was born at Charleston in
1882, son of William A. and Julia M. (Thrower)
Withington. The With ingtons* are of English an-
cestry and on coming to America established their
home in Massachusetts. William A. Withington
was also bom at Charleston, son of Perez With-
ington.
Captain Withington was reared in Charleston, had
a public school education, and prior to the World
war and since returning from abroad has been in
active business life as secretary of the. Lanneau
Art Store and secretary and treasurer of Melcher's
Studio.
Many years of training and discipline with the
state troops gave Captain Withington preparation
for the duties he performed as an officer in the
American Expeditionary Forces. As a boy he joined
the Washington Light Infantry. He was a member
of that organization eighteen years, ten years of the
time as captain. The Washington Light Infantry,
whose history as a military unit has been continuous
since 1807 and whose members have participated in
all the wars of the nation since that date, was
Company B of the Second South Carolina Infantry
prior to the war with Germany.
Captain Withington gave nearly three years to the
military service of the nation. He was in com-
mand of his company on the Mexican border from
June, 1916, to March, 1917. He and the company
were called into Federal service in July, 19 17, and
was on guard duty at Camp Jackson until Septem-
ber of that year and then in training at Camp Sevier
until the spring of 1918. While at Sevier the com-
pany became the nucleus of the One Hundred and
Fifth Ammunition Train of the Thirtieth Division.
As such it sailed from Montreal for France May
26, 1918. In France the One Hundred and Fifth
Ammunition Train was assigned for active front
line duty in various divisions, being changed about
according to the exigencies of the service. Captain
Withington was on duty during the Somme-St.
Mihiel drive, at the Argonne, in the defense of the
Toul sector, and also on the Woevre Plains. There
was seldom a letup to the service at and near the
front lines beginning with the great offensives of
July and ending with the armistice.
After reaching France Captain Withington was
made battalion commander of the Motor Battalion
of the One Hundred and Fifth Ammunition Train.
From the time his men received their final inspec-
tion at Le Mans until the embarkation for home
Captain Withington was in command of the entire
One Hundred and Fifth Ammunition Train, com-
prising seven companies and numerous detachments,
a total of 1,300 men. Captain Withington left
France March 13, 1919, reaching Charleston toward
the end of the same month, and was discharged
April 3, 1919.
Captain Withmgton is a member of Bethel Meth-
odist Church and is affiliated with the Knights of
Pythias. He married Miss Jennie Connor, of
Branchville, South Carolina, daughter of David and
Annie Connor and granddaughter of General Stokes,
a distinguished Confederate officer. Mrs. Withing-
ton is deceased, and is survived by a daughter, Julia
Elizabeth Withington.
J. Arthur Wiggins, active vice president and
manager of the Bank of Denmark, first identified
himself with that commtmity of Bamberg County
in the capacity of an educator. For a number of
years he was head of the Denmark schools, finally
resigning to take up banking.
He was born at Holly Hill, South Carolina, July
26, 1871. He is of English ancestry, the family com-
ing to America in the i6oo's and taking part in the
Revolution. His grandfather, James Wiggins, was
a farmer, while his father, James B. Wiggins, is a
successful physician and surgeon. Dr. J. B. Wig-
ghis was a surgeon in the Confederate army, taking
an active part throughout the struggle, and was
prominentty identified with the famous "red shirt"
brigade during the period of reconstruction. He
was active in the political world, in which he ex-
ercised a wide influence. He was called upon sev-
eral times to serve in public office and filled the
offices of county treasurer and county auditor. In
addition to his professional and political duties he
owned and operated ^bout 4,000 acres in what is
now Orangeburg County, cultivating what is known
as a twenty-plow farm. He was prominent in the
Methodist Church at Holly Hill, in which he was
a steward. He died in 1910. Doctor Wiggins mar-
ried Mary C. Brownlee, a native of Holly Hill. Both
the Brownlee and Wiggins families were early set-
tled in South Carolina.
J. Arthur Wiggins was reared and educated in his
home community and received his A. B. degree in
1895 from Wofford College at Spartanburg. He
spent ten years as superintendent of the high school
at Denmark, and in 1906 accepted the post of cashier
in the Bank of Denmark, and since 191 5 has been
its active vice president and manager. He exercises
a wide influence in financial matters of the district.
The bank is one of the strong ones of Bamberg
County, and has a capital of $50,000, and belongs
to the State and National Banking Associations.
D. N. Cox is president.
Mr. Wiggins takes an active part in the work of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, being a
steward and trustee. He is affiliated with the Ma-
sonic fraternity, the Knights of Pythias and the
Woodmen of the World.
In 1896 he married Miss Mattie Connor, a native
of Holly Hill and a daughter of Fred Connor, a
farmer of Holly Hill. The Connors are an old
South Carolina family of Revolutionary stock. Fred
Connor was a soldier in the Confederate army and
served until the close of the war. He was a man of
sterling character and was an ardent supporter of
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all measures looking toward the general welfare of
the community. He became one of the wealthiest
and most prominent men of the Holly Hill section.
He died in 1910. Mr. and Mrs. Wiggins have four
sons and four daughters: Reynold, Vera, Martha,
James, Fred, Grace, Frances and Hugh.
Reynold C. Wiggins is auditor of the Edisto Na-
tional Bank at Orangeburg. He married Ruth, a
daughter of Capt. J. B. Guess of Denmark, one of
the most prominent farmers in this section of the
state. The Guess family is of Revolutionary stock.
Edward H. McIver, who for twenty years has
had an active business career at Charleston, where
he is now secretary of the Leland Moore Paint &
Oil Company, is a grandson of the distinguished
Hon. Henry McIver and member of the historic
family of that name in the old Cheraw District of
South Carolina, frequently referred to in Bishop
Gregg's notable work, the History of the Cheraws.
Hon. Henry McIver was bom in Darlington
County, South Carolina, in 1826, and graduated
from South Carolina College in 1846. The follow-
ing year, after studying law with his father, he
was admitted to the bar, and three years later,
when his father died, he was solicitor and continued
to fill that office until the close of the Civil war.
In 1877 he was elected an associate judge of the
Supreme Court, and upon the death of Chief Jus-
tice Simpson was elected chief justice. He was a
member of the Secession Convention of South
Carolina and served as an officer in the Fourth
South Carolina Cavalry under General Hampton,
being successively promoted from second lieuten-
ant to first lieutenant and finally to a captaincy.
Judge McIver married Caroline Powe, daughter of
Dr. Thomas Powe, of Cheraw.
Edward H. McIver was born at Cheraw, in Ches-
terfield County, a son of Thomas P. and Susan
(Duvall) McIver, the father now deceased. When
a boy he came to Charleston and finished his educa-
tion in the Charleston High School and the College
of Charleston. He then began his business career,
and for a number of years has been associated with
the Leland Moore Paint & Oil Company. In Jan-
uary, 1920. this corporation increased its charter
from $40,000 to $iSO,ooo, to provide funds for the
building of a new plant with greatly enlarged manu-
facturing facilities for the making of paints and
oils. With this new plant it will become one of the
larger industrial concerns of Charleston.
Mr. McIver is a member of the St. Cecelia So-
ciety, the Charleston Country Club, the Carolina
Yadit Club, the Young Men's Christian Association,
the Chamber of Commerce, the Masonic order and
St. Philip's Church. He married Miss Kate Bull,
of Orangeburg.
G. Frank Bamberg. The Bambergs are one of the
oldest families of South Carolina. They were
transplanted from Germany to the Carolina colonies
about 1700. For two centuries they have been
prominent planters, business men and citizens in the
southern part of the state.
G. Frank Bamberg of Bamberg is owner and
director of some of the largest plantations in the
southern part of the state and is also a leading
banker at Bamberg. He was bom in that city
October 8, 1873. His great-grandfather was' John
George Bamberg, a native of Lexington County,
South Carolina, a minister of the Lutheran Church.
He died in 1800. The grandfather, John Frederick
Bamberg, was a native of that portion of Barnwell
County now Bamberg. The father of the Bamberg
banker was Francis Marion Bamberg, who was bom
in what is now Bamberg County and was a prom-
inent banker, stock farmer and planter. He was a
member of Hart's Battery, Hampton's Legion, dur-
ing the Confederate struggle, and served throughout
the war as a lieutenant. During the reconstruction
period of 1876 he was a prominent figure among
the "Red Shirts," and although a natural leader
among men, he never aspired to political honors.
The Town of Bamberg was named for his uncle,
W. C. Bamberg, while the county was named in his
honor. The United Daughters of the Confederacy
also named their chapter in Bamberg in his honor.
He was a rugged, fearless American whose un-
wavering kindness endeared him to all. He helped
every one he could and would buy any honest man
a farm to start him right. At the time of his death,
which occurred in his sixty-seventh year, he left
$300,000 in mortgages with instructions to his son
to never foreclose one of them, an order which the
latter, G. Frank Bamberg, has never violated. Mr.
F. M. Bamberg was affiliated with the Masons. He
married Mary Ann Jennings, who was of English
ancestry. The Jennmgs family was established in
South Carolina in 1737- She was a daughter of
George P. and Harriet Ann (Moody) Jennmgs and
a granddaughter of John Jennings, a native of Or-
angeburg County.
G. Frank Bamberg was the third in a family of
eight children. He was educated at WoflFord Col-
lege in Spartanburg, and at the age of twenty began
business for himself as a livestock dealer and
planter. Today he owns 2,500 acres, with about
1,500 acres under cultivation, being one of the larg-
est producers of cotton in the southern counties of
the state. Mr. Bamberg is president of the Bamberg
Auto Company, and of the Bamberg Banking Com-
pany, which operates on a capital of $55,000. He is
vice president of the B. E. & W. Railroad. Mr.
Baml^rg is a member of the Masonic order
In i^ he married Nell Elizabeth McGee, a
daughter oi J. B. and Mollie (Cobb) McC^ee. They
have two sons and one daughter: Francis Marion,
Joseph McGee and Nell Jennings.
C. M. Benedict has for a number of years been
a factor in the public utilities business of South
Carolina. He is vice president of the (Charleston
Consolidated Railway and Light Company.
He had a thorough training in the technkal as
well as the business departments of public utilities.
He was bom at Gloversville, New York, June 7»
1872, son of Joseph E. and A. (Morgan) Benedict
He is of English ancestry. He was the only son of
his parents and had a high school education and
also attended the Fort Edward Institute in his
native state. Some of his younger years were spent
in the lumber busmess, and at the age of twenty-
one he gained his first experience in the gas indus-
try, with the old Gloversville Gas Company. He
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
155
began as a pipe fitter, and went through various
grades of promotion until at the end of seven 3rears
he was made manager of the company. This plant
was owned by a larger corporation having head-
quarters at Philadelphia, to which city Mr. Benedict
was called. In Uie spring of 1910 he came to
Charleston and was made assistant treasurer of the
Charleston Consolidated Railway and Light Com-
pany. In Noven>ber, 191 7, he was promoted to his
present office as vice president.
He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce,
the Charleston Club, Country Club, Otranto Club,
also of the Manufacturers Club of Philadelphia and
of the Presb3rterian Church. He married Marvie
Rhodes, of Gloversville, New York. They have two
sons, Joseph B. and Clarence M., Jr. Joseph B.
was an ensign in the United States Navy and was
engaged in transport duty during the war. He re-
signed from the service, effective June 21, 1920.
Jesse Francis Carter. After working his way
through school, paying expenses of his living and
of his education and with the aid of his versatile
and brilliant talents, Jesse Francis Carter has won
an enviable position as a lawyer at Bamberg.
He was born near the little town, of Lodge in
Colleton County, September 12, 1873. His father,
Miles McMillin Carter, was a native of the same
county and spent his active life as a farmer. He
is of an old South Carolina family of English
descent. He married Janie Irene Kinard, a native
of Barnwell County, and daughter of Jacob Francis
Kinnard, also an old South Carolina family of
Scotch-Irish descent. Miles Carter after his mar-
riage moved to a plantation in Colleton County
where his six sons were born, all of whom are still
living, named: Jesse Francis and Bert Dean Carter,
attorneys at law in Bamberg under the firm name
of Carter, Carter & Kearse; Joseph Edgar Carter
of Wilmington, North Carolina; Alonzo B. Carter,
of Maxton, North Carolina; Wilbur Lee Carter of
Greensboro, North Carolina; and Miles J, Carter
of Florence, Alabama, all of whom are engaged in
some phase of insurance work, Wilbur Lee and
Miles J. owning controlling interests in the business
which they conduct.
Jesse Francis Carter as a small boy had oppor-
tunities to occasionally attend a log cabin school in
Colleton County, a term of only a few weeks each
year. He was thirteen when his father died, at
which time he took charge of the farm and as-
sisted his mother in rearing his infant brothers.
His mother died when he was twenty years of age,
after which he attended the graded schools at Bam-
berg, also a classical institute, and as a means of
support taught a number of summer terms. He
finally entered Peabody College ifi Nashville, Ten-
nessee, where he graduated in 1900^ and after teach-
ing for a while, he graduated with the degree A. B.
from the University of Nashville in 1903. In 1904
Mr. Carter entered the Law School of the Univer-
sity of South Carolina and took two years' work
in one, receiving his LL. B. degree in 1905. He then
located at Bamberg, and has rapidly made his way
to the front as a lawyer. In 1900 he again took spe-
cial post-grraduate work in Chicago. He is engaged
in general practice and is a member of the firm
Carter, Carter & Kearse of Bamberg, South Caro-
lina. Mr. Carter owns and as a means of recreation
conducts some small farming interests in the neigh-
borhood of Bamberg.
In college and university Mr. Carter gave all the
time he could to literary and debating societies.
He won several debates, including the debater's
medal of his society at the University of South
Carolina. He was also a winner in the oratorical
contest, and was president of his literary society in
the University of Nashville and was made perma-
nent secretary of his class at graduation.
He is affiliated with the Masonic ord6r and the
Knights of Pythias, and has held many of the
offices in both orders. He is a member of the State
Bar Association and was attorney for the local
board of Bamberg County during the war, also gov-
ernment appeal agent, a member of the State Coun-
cil of Defense, and a leader in the second Red Cross
campaign and in many other war activities. He is
a member and deacon of the Missionary Baptist
Church and teacher of its Men's Bible Class. Mr.
Carter has never been a seeker for political honors,
but is one of the most influential men in his party
in Bamberg County and is the present chairmari of
the democratic county committee, serving his sec-
ond term in that office. Mr. Carter is president of
the Home Building & Loan Association, which has
an issued capital of $200,000. This is a recently
organized company, Mr. Carter being one of the
organizers. The company starts off with bright
prospects.
In 191 1 Mr. Carter married Lydia Jenkins, a
daughter of B. M. Jenkins of Kline, South Caro-
lina. They have three daughters: Lydia Frances,
Janie Elizabeth and Martha Jaudon Carter.
James Hayes- Roberts, M. D. The veteran phy-
sician and surgeon of Ehrhardt is Dr. James H.
Roberts, who began practice there nearly thirty
years ago. He has had much to do with the pro-
fessional, business and civic life of this community.
Doctor Roberts was born at Allendale in old
Barnwell County March 2, 1863. His grandfather,
Richard Roberts, according to the best information
obtainable, was a * native of France. The father.
Dr. Richard Creech Roberts, was a native of Barn-
well County, was reared and educated there, and
for fifty years practiced dentistry. He served as a
lieutenant of cavalry in the Confederate army and
was at one time a member of the Legislature and
in other ways prominent in local affairs. He was
a major in the State Militia. He died at the age
of sixty-nine. His wife was Sarah Emily Duiin, of
Barnwell County. Her father was born in Ireland
and came to Barnwell County when a young man
and was a contractor and built many of the early
houses in that county.
Dr. James Hayes Roberts was the second in a
family of six children, five of whom reached ma-
ture years and two are still living, the other being
Boyce H.
Doctor Roberts was liberally educated, attending
the Porter Military Academy and The Citadel at
Charleston, and graduating from the South Caro-
lina Medical College on March 4, 1887. For three
years he practiced in his native town of Allendale,
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
and in 1890 located at Ehrhardt. During 1906-07
he was in practice at Great Falls, but then returned
to Ehrhardt. He is a member of the Bamberg
County Medical Society, the State Medical Associa-
tion, is vice president of the Farmers and Mer-
chants Bank of Ehrhardt, and is affiliated with the
Masonic